Uptown Underground

Installation

How might it be possible to restore a connection to a subway train's urban context and an awareness of movement through the city? Uptown Underground offers a geographically accurate view of the cityscape above a moving subway, projected onto its ceiling, as it moves under New York City. The project is implemented with four projectors connected to micro-computers, synchronized over a peer-to-peer WiFi network, and informed by geolocation and acceleration data from a cellphone, all running on battery power. It was installed without permission on a series of moving wagons between the Brooklyn Bridge and 96th St. stations, a roughly 9.5km/25-minute loop.