If you spend much time in New York, you are probably among the the six million or so who ride one of the world’s largest and oldest subway systems each day. You may have the New Yorker’s classic love-hate relationship with the system, which can take you practically anywhere for a few bucks, but is notoriously underfunded and run-down. And if so, artist Chloë Bass’s latest project may just speak to you. Literally.
If you hear something, free something is the New York native’s first sound art project, and it is the first-ever takeover by an artist of the sound system in Gotham’s labyrinthine subway complex. Waiting on selected mezzanines, riders hear a deep, attention-getting tone (designed in collaboration with artist Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste), followed by one of 24 announcements—though the voices may challenge the definition of that last word, as what you’ll hear isn’t always strictly informational, but rather evocative.
Last week, in the first moments of the New York fall season, dozens of observers gathered at the massive Fulton Street Center to see a group of 10 performers, scattered throughout the atrium, deliver a performance of the texts, composed by Bass.
“What we hear changes how we feel,” says a voice in one recording. “How we feel changes what we do. And what we do changes the world around us, even if just for a moment.”
Another is a dialogue between two voices. “Remember when Aretha Franklin died and people were singing her songs together on crowded train cars?” asks one. “It was amazing. Everyone was sad, and everyone was smiling,” responds the second. “It was a moment when I wanted to say to the city, ‘You see? That’s how you are,’” says voice one, to which voice two responds, “All these little private worlds coinciding out in public.”
Each announcement—they will play in English, Spanish, Arabic, Bangla, Haitian Kreyòl, and Mandarin—is followed by the title of the project, which recalls the ubiquitous exhortation “If you see something, say something,” urging riders to protect each other from danger—or, if you like, surveil one another. Ticker displays transmit a brief explanatory text penned by the artist. Posters in the stations will also clue straphangers in to the project, but it may just be that some will hear the announcements while not seeing the posters, and go on about their day with a bit of mystery.
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