The Subway Above Ground
8 Av
The following piece simulates a full ride on the L 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
- Canarsie - Rockaway Pkwy $63,001 approx. median household income
- E 105 St $53,938 approx. median household income
- New Lots Av $43,889 approx. median household income
- Livonia Av $41,315 approx. median household income
- Sutter Av $16,332 approx. median household income
- Atlantic Av $36,051 approx. median household income
- Broadway Jct $52,817 approx. median household income
- Bushwick Av - Aberdeen St $58,100 approx. median household income
- Wilson Av $42,464 approx. median household income
- Halsey St $60,931 approx. median household income
- Myrtle - Wyckoff Avs $52,973 approx. median household income
- DeKalb Av $54,460 approx. median household income
- Jefferson St $50,020 approx. median household income
- Morgan Av $79,931 approx. median household income
- Montrose Av $37,404 approx. median household income
- Grand St $82,645 approx. median household income
- Graham Av $86,101 approx. median household income
- Lorimer St $90,570 approx. median household income
- Bedford Av $109,241 approx. median household income
- 1 Av $84,226 approx. median household income
- 3 Av $97,949 approx. median household income
- Union Sq - 14 St $157,365 approx. median household income
- 6 Av $130,416 approx. median household income
- 8 Av $124,595 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.