The Sounds of Sound Sculpture

At Link Library, I found a phonodisc which collects the works of several prominent sound sculptors. Reinhold Marxhausen was one of the featured artists. The description called all the artists "founding fathers" in the field of musical sculpture. These first photos show his work "Throne Dome" and the others show info about the record itself. You can find it in Link Library's phonodisc collection and play it at the library.

Other Blogs with Informaiton on Marxhausen

While browsing the internet, I discovered two other blogs with posts about Marxhausen. One seems to be a blog analyzing sound, and contained a quote and photos of Marxy I had not seen before.

Once I found a stone that was brown, irregular and very smooth. It was heavy, and looked a bit melted. I remember showing it to a wise, old, bearded rock-hound pastor from Morristown, Minnesota. Reverend Zimmerman's house and life were filled to overflowing with interesting stuff he had collected in his lifetime. When he saw my brown stone, his bushy eyebrows twitched, He looked at me and said 'Son, this is a meteorite - a star' That stone became special to me and I carried it around to surprise all my friends. I was the boy with stardust in his pockets.

You can read the full blog post here.

The other blog I stumbled across is about Seward Nebraska. Marxhausen left such an imprint on the community, it's not surprising to see his work discussed here.


According to the author, Mike Sylwester, these photos were taken on July 4, 1975, and originally had a caption: "Marxhausen Seward Fourth of July Parade float. Old St. John Lutheran Church in the background." Sylwester explains that the second picture "shows the front of the float being held by Karl Marxhausen (in the foreground) and Reinhold Marxhausen (in the background). The back of the float was held by Paul and Dorris Marxhausen (son and mother) and some friends, but they are not seen in these pictures."

He also quoted Reinhold Marxhausen's son, Karl, who discussed how the float was constructed:

Dad used hula hoops for the four corners. With a walker in each hoop. He created a fish line grid, to which inflated ballons were secured. The rectangular float could be elevated by the front and back walkers moving to the middle, creating a 20 high arch.

The full post can be read here.

Photos of Marxy

Some things never change. Decades ago, these students were enjoying the same musical headsets you can find in Marxhausen's studio today.

You can make out a door knob, an object which clearly intrigued Marxhausen.

A fascinating portrait of Marxy in his studio.

A gallery space for Marxhausen's work:

Styrofoam shapes similar to the ones he showed Letterman.

Stereo Wires

Pictured above, one of my classmates tries out a sound helmet. It's a similar concept to the other sound makers Marxy showed Letterman. Pictured below is the same stereo doorknob set featured on that show.

Below, one of my classmates tries out a helmet with a similar concept.

Studio visit

Our class was fortunate to be able to go over to Marx's studio a few days ago and play with some of his sound sculptures and his flurries.

If you want to see more pictures of the sound sculptures, check out this link

Sound Sculptures (there are some pictures of his Stardust on this page).

Last but certainly not least, here is a picture of the man himself:

and this is what he has to say:

It was a boring Saturday
at the Mills College
sculpture studio
in California.
No Plans for the day.
I found a door knob on the table
and welded some wires on one end
just for the fun of it.
I place a knob to my ear
and strummed the wire
on the opposite end

WOW

I got another door knob
welded some wire on it also
and connected the two door knobs
with a metal wire which went over
my head so the knobs
were against my ear.

I invented a manual Walkman.

Found in the Marxhausen gallery--poem used in one of his shows.

- Amber Konz

These comments were posted on the original blog site:Fantastic pictures. The sound sculptures are so awesome, I wish I had some of my own to play around with, and the flurries are just as entertaining. It's good to see the blog up and moving along, and it's looking fantastic. And now to bookmark it.

October 21, 2009 | Steven Odom

I saw this post on Gizmodo and immediately thought of Marxhausen http://gizmodo.com/5435603/a-worse-slinky

Thank you for the Flurry picture; I guess my memory is accurate.

December 28, 2009 | Eliot