Masstransiscope: I Ain't Never Seen That Before!

It's great to find suprises in least likely of places. Masstransiscope is idea of the artist and filmmaker Bill Brand, who along with the public art organization Creative Time asked the MTA in the late 1970s to let him transform the tracks themselves into art.

He created a mass-transit version of a zoetrope, the earliest motion picture device, by constructing a long slitted light box alongside a subway track with a series of paintings inside so that, when a train passed, riders experienced the illusion that the painting was moving. The 228 hand-painted panels recently been been repainted and can be seen in the abandoned Brooklyn Myrtle Avenue subway station on the B/Q Manhattan-bound line.