concept
Concept:
The New York City Transit subway system unites a body of over 450 destinations in the five boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx. As we travel our common routes and take our occasional detours, we are rarely aware of the distinct sonic worlds we are transported to and from. The Sonic Subway Map is an attempt to reveal those worlds to all who will click and listen, and to create new auditory perspectives through mediation and mapping.
Artistic and theoretical inspiration for this project comes in no small part from the writings of sound artist and author R. Murray Schafer. His development of the concept of soundscape, as well as his advocation of a "positive study" of sonic environments, figure heavily in my sound collection process and execution of this program.
In the Sonic Subway Map environment, static visuals yield to rich stereo recordings. New soundscapes are created with every use -- the Map is programmed such that no two experiences with the map will be the same. At the same time, the ears of the user are opened to sounds of urbanity, sounds one may commonly tune out, the sounds of a city of difference -- a city united and, here, revealed in new modes by its public transit system.
How It Works:
The Sonic Subway Map has been brought to life in the programming world of MAX/MSP. Using a recording from outside each stop on the F, the digital representation of the MTA Subway map generates a stereo recording from outside each station with a click on a corresponding station-point. Clicking on a subsequent station-point generates a crossfade to audio from that stop. Samples are roughly two minutes each and open at random start points, generating unique possibilities for each user.
Access Points:
By allowing the installation user to engage the urban sonic space through familiar visual mapping, my aim here is to re-contextualize the subway as an entry/access point for the city’s hyper-diverse sonic locations. In so doing, the program tells unique stories about these public spaces by reanimating the subway map with untold generative possibilities for the user.
Urban keynotes, urban diversity:
While one might assume a homogeneity to the sounds of urbanity, the discovery of this project is that, while there are regular auditory “keynotes” to be found in the city, the F-train Sonic Subway Map reveals a world of difference in sonic location, and by extension the inhabitants and users of those locations.
One listens to the map and hears young African-American men chanting outside of shops at the Fulton Mall, an Orthodox school emptying at the end of the day, the crinkling of a load-out from a recycling center off of the 18th Avenue stop, the deadening quiet of Roosevelt Island that brings the sounds of the East River to the fore. The above-ground trains past Church Avenue in Brooklyn change life dramatically to a world more dominated by commercial and small-scale industrial activity, edging the quieter residential several side-streets out of the sonic picture.
