NYC: The Subway Map as an Interactive Musical Instrument-- Play It!

This wonderful project by Alexander Chen, www.mta.me, has been my soundtrack all day. The artist explains the project as such: "at www.mta.me, Conductor turns the New York subway system into an interactive string instrument. Using the MTA’s actual subway schedule, the piece begins in realtime by spawning trains which departed in the last minute, then continues accelerating through a 24 hour loop. The visuals are based on Massimo Vignelli’s 1972 diagram."

Each time two train lines intersect, you hear a note from a cello, determined in pitch by the length of the line at the moment of contact. The piece evolves into an improvised composition that is as stunningly beautiful visually as it is acoustically. One of the comments on the project's page was to have this playing on three concurrent tabs. That's what I have going right now, and I cannot recommend it enough! Find out more about this project here. To play the interactive project, click here