Subway Symphony
The very best of design finds magic in the mundane, purity in the overwhelming knotty. There’s a reason so many people look at contemporary art and design and flippantly tell themselves, “I could do that.” It’s seems that simple. It’s not, and they can’t. Alexander Chen can.
The interactive designer and musician’s latest, Conductor: mta.me, animates Massimo Vignelli’s classic 1972 New York City subway diagram in crafting an interactive string instrument out of the MTA subway schedule… in realtime and progressing through a 24 hour loop of actual train departures. The attention to technical detail is seriously astounding (train nerds can look for decommissioned lines like the 8 train running as ghost trains between 12am and 2am!). Chen developed a system of rules that allowed him (and the MTA) to conduct a sweetly serene piece using code, technical data, sound and now legendary graphic design. It’s pure and magical, and no, you couldn’t have done it.
All images and video copyright Alexander Chen.
