Experience Living Underwater in the Park Avenue Tunnel Summer Streets Installation

In August, nearly seven miles of streets in the world’s busiest metropolis will be open to the public on Saturdays in New York City. The annual Summer Streets celebration, hosted by the NYC Department of Transportation started this past weekend on Park Avenue. We decided to check out the newest exhibitions and attractions Summer Streets had to offer, including the newest Park Avenue Tunnel interactive art installation by artist Jana Winderen called Dive.

Sure, New Yorker’s walk and bike everyday, but there is just something awesome about walking Park Avenue without fear of getting hit by a bike messenger or someone’s Honda Civic. It seemed everyone was more than excited to walk inside the Park Avenue Tunnel to experience Winderen’s installation of sound and atmosphere.

The second installation to use the Park Avenue Tunnel (the first was last year’s Voice Tunnel), Winderen’s Dive is a sound installation which gives people the feeling of figuratively diving underwater. Once participants venture down into the tunnel, they’re welcomed by blue lighting and the sounds of water, crustaceans and other sea life. As you go further into the tunnel, the sounds change to ones heard in deep water environments.

The sounds were recorded in shallow and deep waters off different countries around the world like Russia, Greenland, Thailand, The Carribbean, the United States and many more. The recordings were made by Winderen personally throughout her travels and the sound system was designed and programmed by her collage Tony Myatt.

The installation will be running on the next two Saturdays for Summer Streets. It is open from 7:30 to 12:30pm.

To ask whether he pretended to be a fish the entire time he was inside the installation, contact the author @TatteredFedora