Subways

The View from 35,000 Feet

The code was flowing differently this week. Between flights, suspended in that strange liminal space of the sky, my fingers danced across the keyboard. Something had shifted. The patterns emerging on my screen felt more alive, as if connected to something larger than pixels and parameters.

Pressed against the airplane window, I watched the world unfold below like a living map. Rivers carved their ancient paths. Cities bloomed, their grids and neighborhoods a beautiful tension between human order and natural flow. They weren’t imposed upon the earth—they were woven into it.

What truly connects us? What has always been the thread?

A Deeper Connection

This aerial view sparked a revelation. Online, the narrative is often bleak: technology isolates us, social media fractures our communities. We hide behind profiles and let algorithms speak for us, building digital walls higher than any physical fence.

But the sprawling urban arteries below told a different story. The power of the Roman Empire wasn't just in its legions; it was in its roads. Those stone pathways were the nervous system of a civilization, carrying not just goods, but ideas, cultures, and dreams. Trade routes became idea routes. Physical connection enabled intellectual and cultural connection.

The Pulse of the City

Back in the code, working with Gemini to push beyond my usual organic curves, it clicked. Cities. That was the next evolution of my art. Not just spirals, but the vibrant ecosystems where human creativity takes root and spreads.

A city isn't just a collection of buildings; it's an organism of connection. And that's when the subways called to me. These hidden networks are fascinating—spaces where strangers are pressed together, yet worlds apart, all flowing toward different destinations on shared lines.

A subway isn't the heart of a city, but it is the vein, the connective tissue that lets it live.

They are the infrastructure that allows the real heart—us, the people—to pulse through the urban body. In my code, I began to see it: the subway map as a living system, each colored line alive with the rhythm of human movement.

From Dots to Networks

As I worked, a deeper metaphor emerged. Every great network begins as dots—isolated stations, points of possibility. Slowly, these dots extend lines, reaching, seeking. When they finally touch, a system is born.

This isn't just about transit. It’s how we build everything. No single person creates a subway. It requires planners, engineers, workers, and riders. Each person is a dot, each contribution a line. Only when these individual efforts connect does the whole system come alive with purpose.

The Humbling Toy

A wave of nostalgia hit me, taking me back to an Etch A Sketch—that magical toy that could only draw in continuous, unbroken lines. For a moment, creating a city seemed easy. Just connect the lines, right?

The answer was swift and humbling: it's incredibly hard. A real city isn't one continuous line; it's layered complexity, a three-dimensional puzzle of overlapping systems. The simple joy of that childhood toy collided with the fierce challenge of urban creation, and my code struggled to bridge the gap.

We Are All Builders

But from that struggle came clarity. We are still connected, even in our digital age. We are bound by the infrastructure we build together—not just fiber optic cables, but the deeper architecture of civilization. The roads, the rails, the paths we forge so strangers can become neighbors and ideas can travel from one mind to the next.

From my airplane window, I had seen the truth: we are all builders. We create the systems that allow human creativity to spread like morning light across the landscape. The veins run deep, older than the internet, and stronger than any technology that might divide us.

Join the Signal

This art is a living system, and its future should be too. While the ultimate goal is to inscribe these ephemeral cityscapes as permanent digital artifacts on Bitcoin, the path to creation should be collaborative. Inspired by Gamma's Signals platform, this project will use community engagement to determine its final form. Your interest—your signals—will help shape the future of the collection.

This isn't just about collecting art; it's about becoming part of the network that gives it value. Follow the journey and prepare to send your signal.