Undersound

Undersound is a site outlining an idea to distribute music around London Underground trains. Users would be able to upload songs from their collections to centralised distribution points, and download tracks left by other users.

"undersound is a new type of experience, an interface that is on your mobile phone and in the underground stations you pass through every day. It is part personal, part public and all about the tube. undersound is a way of listening to, distributing and affecting the flow of music in the underground that goes beyond just the music itself. It allows you to see your journeys, the people around you, and the tube itself in a new light."

The designers talk about three key inspirational themes or aspects of life underground that they tapped into in the design of undersound:

a platform for art - a sense of place, the idea that the tube is seen as a site for the creation and appreciation of public and personal art

an ecology of objects - localized interpersonal interactions, the importance of the multiplicity and the interaction of the objects people bring into the underground

emergent socialty - subtle social patterns and norms emerge in the underground creating unique opportunities for social understanding and interaction

There's some very interesting parrallels with the web.  For examples, each track in the undersound system would be tagged with its place of origin (the station where it was uploaded) and this information would be visible as the track is being played. This might trigger memories and musings around the listeners personal relationship to that place. You could ask questions like, "Is there a correlation between the flow of people around the tube network and the flow of music tracks around the undersound network?"