One of the best-kept secrets of Times Square and often
nicknamed the “hum,” Max Neuhaus’s “Times Square” sound installation is meant
to be discovered by visitors on their own at the north end of the triangular
pedestrian island located at Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets.
Neuhaus intended the work to be passed by until it became a sort of
personal encounter.
First installed in the subway ventilation shaft in 1977 to
1992 and then later restored in 2002, the unlabeled work of art has no sound
system in sight. You may notice a low, distinctive “hum” mixed in with
all the crazy sounds of Times Square and keep on walking or stop to figure out
where this uncanny sound is coming from when you realize it is not just subway
noise. It certainly is worthy of attention if you are tuned in. Max
Neuhaus describes his “sound sculpture” as “a rich, harmonic sound texture
resembling the after-ring of large...