While he’s been busy with his Four Horseman wine bar/restaurant, James Murphy hasn’t given up on his dream to change the sounds subway turnstiles make into something more symphonic. He’s even got backing for it now: Heineken, who are producing videos about the “Subway Symphony” project, and they are apparently developing prototype turnstiles.
But what they don’t have, is any support whatsoever from the MTA. The Transit Authority’s spokesman Adam Lisberg told Gothamist, “I am familiar with James Murphy’s proposal, and while I would never refer to him as ‘just a musician,’ I can say confidently that it is as creative as it is unworkable” and said that when the MTA gave Murphy permission to film one of his promotional videos in the Subway, the agreement included the following language:
Licensee and Agent hereby acknowledge that the MTA has informed the individual depicted in the advertisement that the concept presented in the advertisement involving the turnstiles of the New York City subway system cannot be implemented.
Murhpy, however, told Gothamist that Lisberg is “not a policy maker, he’s the press guy, so I wouldn’t expect him to know what our project is.” Lisberg responded, saying the contract’s language “seems pretty black and white.”
Even if Heineken or some other benefactor was willing to pay for “Subway Symphony” to be fully implemented, the tones actually serve a specific purpose beyond annoying straphangers like Murphy:
“The tones are an ADA element for the visually impaired, and we won’t mess with them–much less take turnstiles out of service and risk disabling them for an art project. (It would be a very cool project, don’t get me wrong, but we can’t mess with turnstiles that handle 6 million customers a day for it.)”
Murphy remains politely tenacious, with a new promotional video being released this week which you can watch below.
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