The Subway Above Ground
Jamaica Center - Parsons/Archer
The following piece simulates a full ride on the E 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.
Download this video*
*Right click or long-press the button above and select "download link..." to save to your device
Track Listing
- World Trade Center $236,441 approx. median household income
- Canal St $174,519 approx. median household income
- Spring St $123,937 approx. median household income
- W 4 St $121,201 approx. median household income
- 14 St $106,817 approx. median household income
- 23 St $96,234 approx. median household income
- 34 St - Penn Station $126,635 approx. median household income
- 42 St - Port Authority Bus Terminal $89,492 approx. median household income
- 50 St $111,619 approx. median household income
- 7 Av $109,324 approx. median household income
- 5 Av/53 St $160,264 approx. median household income
- Lexington Av/53 St $120,954 approx. median household income
- Court Sq $129,439 approx. median household income
- Queens Plaza $94,869 approx. median household income
- Jackson Hts - Roosevelt Av $57,631 approx. median household income
- Forest Hills - 71 Av $79,987 approx. median household income
- 75 Av $82,124 approx. median household income
- Kew Gardens - Union Tpke $76,672 approx. median household income
- Briarwood - Van Wyck Blvd $68,507 approx. median household income
- Jamaica - Van Wyck $65,149 approx. median household income
- Sutphin Blvd - Archer Av - JFK Airport $62,761 approx. median household income
- Jamaica Center - Parsons/Archer $42,603 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.