Lingfei Cao’s Under treats NYC subway as an underground concert hall

Two hours underground every day will change how you see things. For Lingfei Cao, those lengthy subway commutes between 2023 and 2024 transformed routine transit into something closer to anthropological fieldwork. While most passengers focus on getting from point A to B, Cao found herself drawn to the performers – those musicians who somehow manage to make their sound rise above the mechanical din of the underground. What started as curiosity about subway acoustics became Under, a self-initiated identity project that treats New York’s transit system as an accidental concert hall. Rather than approaching subway performers as background noise or urban colour, Cao’s work positions them as artists commanding a sophisticated acoustic environment. “Hearing the performers underground, I was always fascinated by how their music could stay so clear – even from a distance – and seemed to rise above the surrounding noise,” she explains. That fascination led to deeper research into the subway’s acoustic properties, where Cao discovered something theatre designers have long understood: certain architectural features naturally enhance sound quality. The subway’s wall materials reflect sound waves efficiently, creating what Cao describes as an “underground theater” without any need for amplification. This connection between performance spaces and transit infrastructure sparked the project’s central insight – treating the subway not just as infrastructure, but as an environment where music takes on unique acoustic properties.