The Subway Above Ground
Crown Hts - Utica Av
The following piece simulates a full ride on the 4 line of the NYC subway, where the quantity and power of the instruments at any given moment in the song correspond to the median household income of the neighborhood that you are passing through.
Instructions: if you would like to experience this offline and on a subway ride, download the media file via the button below the video. Once you start to play the file, find your station (you can use the track listing on this page as a guide), and listen to the song in the background as you ride the subway. The result is a meditative piece in which the dramatic contrasts of a song echo the dramatic differences of income in the city.
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*Right click or long-press the button above and select "download link..." to save to your device
Track Listing
- Woodlawn $30,032 approx. median household income
- Mosholu Pkwy $32,409 approx. median household income
- Bedford Park Blvd - Lehman College $35,949 approx. median household income
- Kingsbridge Rd $25,020 approx. median household income
- Fordham Rd $33,642 approx. median household income
- 183 St $22,267 approx. median household income
- Burnside Av $30,242 approx. median household income
- 176 St $28,856 approx. median household income
- Mt Eden Av $29,735 approx. median household income
- 170 St $25,174 approx. median household income
- 167 St $26,287 approx. median household income
- 161 St - Yankee Stadium $29,454 approx. median household income
- 149 St - Grand Concourse $22,412 approx. median household income
- 138 St - Grand Concourse $19,501 approx. median household income
- 125 St $19,063 approx. median household income
- 86 St $150,093 approx. median household income
- 59 St $144,416 approx. median household income
- Grand Central - 42 St $120,923 approx. median household income
- 14 St - Union Sq $157,795 approx. median household income
- Brooklyn Bridge - City Hall $147,804 approx. median household income
- Fulton St $189,224 approx. median household income
- Wall St $141,658 approx. median household income
- Bowling Green $150,158 approx. median household income
- Borough Hall $151,919 approx. median household income
- Nevins St $113,941 approx. median household income
- Franklin Av $61,022 approx. median household income
- Crown Hts - Utica Av $33,962 approx. median household income
Created by Brian Foo using Median household income by census tract, 2017 ACS 5-year estimates (B19013) and MTA subway station data. Code is open source. This piece is part of the 2021 Data Through Design: Ground Truth Exhibition. You can also visit this piece's sister project that turns this same data into a 3D interactive map.