Anne Spalter and The Josh Craig combine original footage of the NYC subway system with custom musical compositions and immersive audio environments to reimagine public transportation for the cities of the future. Blending analog and digital processes, their work transcends time and space, transforming trains into vibrant, living entities that surge with light, color, and motion — propelling the citizens of tomorrow to their destinations at light speed.
Drawing inspiration from Futurism, psychedelia, concrete sound, and minimalist composers like Steve Reich, the works merge cutting-edge visual and audio technologies to generate evocative future stories.
The audio environments, crafted by The Josh Craig, incorporate field recordings captured across New York City’s mass transit system. These recordings are interwoven with analog synthesizer arrangements whose modulations align with the rhythms of the trains on screen. The soundscapes were meticulously created using an ARP 2600, Korg Minilogue XD, Normand Mono MK2, Roland TB 303, and Embodme ERAE Touch — each processed through an array of effects units, alongside tape loops of train sounds, all recorded in a single take via an Allen & Heath GL4000 mixing console. The use of magnetic tape heads introduces subtle fluctuations in the recordings, echoing the electric pulses and momentum of trains navigating the urban grid.
The visual AI processing, developed with a custom Stable Diffusion pipeline and programmed using ComfyUI, employs a video-to-video pipeline utilizing Animatediff and ControlNet. The source subway video footage is transformed through iterative processing, where base prompts evolve through weighted narrative cues at regular intervals. Striking a delicate balance between the gritty realism of each video frame and the surreal fantasy of the AI transformation required painstaking tuning and countless iterations. The works were further edited and processed in Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, and Topaz Video AI. Each decision was an artistic curation, a meticulous dance between technology and imagination, to ensure the final visuals pulse with an otherworldly yet grounded vibrancy.
Through this synthesis of sound, image, and technology, Spalter and Craig invite viewers to envision a kinetic, surrealistic, dreamlike future where transportation becomes both a functional marvel and a transcendent work of art.
Future Trains debuted at the Bang & Olufsen Soho showroom, NYC, January 2025, curated by Jessica Marinaro.
View the five works →
