The Subway Above Ground
Jamaica Center - Parsons/Archer
The following piece simulates a full ride on the J 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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Track Listing
- Broad St $143,827 approx. median household income
- Fulton St $204,089 approx. median household income
- Chambers St $138,087 approx. median household income
- Canal St $122,323 approx. median household income
- Bowery $73,804 approx. median household income
- Essex St $42,607 approx. median household income
- Marcy Av $37,828 approx. median household income
- Hewes St $44,519 approx. median household income
- Lorimer St $38,980 approx. median household income
- Flushing Av $81,352 approx. median household income
- Myrtle Av $35,566 approx. median household income
- Kosciuszko St $54,222 approx. median household income
- Gates Av $38,215 approx. median household income
- Halsey St $32,349 approx. median household income
- Chauncey St $36,587 approx. median household income
- Broadway Jct $54,270 approx. median household income
- Alabama Av $30,228 approx. median household income
- Van Siclen Av $38,820 approx. median household income
- Cleveland St $47,117 approx. median household income
- Norwood Av $53,626 approx. median household income
- Crescent St $44,933 approx. median household income
- Cypress Hills $47,718 approx. median household income
- 75 St $65,481 approx. median household income
- 85 St - Forest Pkwy $72,577 approx. median household income
- Woodhaven Blvd $77,118 approx. median household income
- 104 St $75,230 approx. median household income
- 111 St $67,258 approx. median household income
- 121 St $55,672 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.