Transit Opera

Copper adhesive tape on acrylic, speakers, microcontrollers
African Grove Theatre, NYU

Acrylic cubes with the speakers and boards visible inside. Each cube carries the transit system of a different New York borough, traced in copper tape, and touching a line plays a tone corresponding to the average frequency of ridership in that system: Staten Island has the lowest tone and Manhattan the highest. The opera is played by touching, alone or together.

The piece turns the transit map into an instrument, exploring how people move through the city through a line that is both the route and the wire.