The daily cut and thrust of a city’s underground rail system is not something you’d consider very musical. The mechanical hum of trains rolling through tunnels, the odd and awkward bits of conversation, shuffling papers, commuter sounds and non-sounds, the stilted, loaded, stifling half-silences only a carriage full of sleep-dimmed strangers at 8am can bare—penetrated perhaps by the harrowing shouts or mutterings of a drunken bum or reveler. But Alexander Chen has seen beauty where perhaps most only see grime and chaos, turning the daily journeys of New York City’s subway trains into an interactive string instrument in his project Conductor.Based on the iconic map created by Italian designer Massimo Vignelli the project works in real time using the MTA schedule. The visualization shows the departure time of each train. When they cross paths, they produce the sound of a plucked string, making for a harmonious representation of the hustle and bustle of a working subway system. It’s a beautifully simple idea—transforming an existing, living part of a city into an interactive video piece that marries reactive data visualization with generative audiovisuals to produce a reflection of a vital part of a city’s infrastructure. The council should put it on video screens in every station. But for now, you can watch and listen to the project here.Chen explains how it works:The piece follows some rules. Every minute, it checks for new trains launched from their end stations. The train then moves towards the end of the line, with its speed set by the schedule's estimated trip duration. Some decisions were made for musical, aesthetic, and technical reasons, such as fading out routes over time, the gradual time acceleration, and limiting the number of concurrent trains. Also, I used the weekday schedule. Some of these limitations result in subtle variations, as different trains are chosen during each 24-hour loop.The system has changed since 1972, and some lines no longer exist. For example, the 8 train, or the Third Ave El, was shut down in 1973. The former K train was merged into other routes. I decided to run these ghost trains between 12am-2am.And on the audio:Length determines pitch, with longer strings playing lower notes. When a string is in the middle of being drawn by a subway car, its pitch is continually shifting. The sounds are cello pizzicato from the wonderful freesound.org, a set recorded by corsica_s. A complete chromatic scale was too dissonant. Ultimately I settled on a simple major C scale but with the lowest note as a raised third E, which keeps it from ever feeling fully resolved.You can read more about how he created the piece over on his blog.
Advertisement