Hands holding up a sign that says “If you hear something free something,” outside a busy subway station.
Visitor Information
About If you hear something, free something
If you hear something, free something is an audio artwork by the artist Chloë Bass that consists of a series of 24 poetic audio announcements that build a practice of everyday care and question the usual purposes of public address. The announcements–in English, Spanish, Arabic, Bangla, Haitian Kreyòl, Mandarin, and ASL–play intermittently in select subway stations. Each announcement begins with a custom tone sound, designed by Bass in collaboration with artist Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, and ends with a chorus of voices, prompting If you hear something, free something. The project is co-presented by public art organization Creative Time and MTA Arts & Design. If you hear something, free something is Bass’s first sound project and the first innovative artist project on the MTA broadcast system.
Project Locations
From September 3rd to October 5th, 2025 experience If you hear something, free something in the mezzanines and passageways of the following stations:
Manhattan
Fulton Street (4 5)
Union Square (4 5 6)
Grand Central (S)
5 Av Bryant Park (7)
163 St Manhattan (A C)
Queens
Court Square (7G)
74 St – Broadway (7)
Mets Willets Point (7)
Brooklyn
Clinton-Washington Avs (G)
Ft Hamilton Pkwy Brooklyn (F G)
York St (F)
Atlantic Ave / Barclays Center Brooklyn (2 3 4 5)
Bronx
Westchester Sq (6)
167 St (B D)
If you hear something, free something will play every 15 minutes in the mezzanines at the stations listed above. The 24 poetic announcements are divided into 4 movements with 6 new announcements released each Sunday. The sonic interventions demonstrate the way sound, voice, and music are used to remind us that public modes of communication are changeable and may even be used to build community.
Map
Activity Guide
An educational activity worksheet is available to help listeners engage with If you hear something, free something by Chloë Bass. Designed for all ages and settings, whether waiting, commuting, or moving through daily life, this guide enriches and accompanies the experience of the sonic work.
Download the English version here.
Translated versions of the guide are available on our access page.
Las versiones traducidas de la guía están disponibles en nuestra página de acceso
指南的翻译版本可在我们的访问页面上找到
গাইডের অনুবাদিত সংস্করণগুলি আমাদের অ্যাক্সেস পৃষ্ঠায় পাওয়া যাবে।
Vèsyon tradui gid la disponib sou paj aksè nou an
تتوفر إصدارات مترجمة من الدليل على صفحة الوصول الخاصة بنا
Accessibility
While If you hear something, free something can be experienced through sound in subway stations, accessibility is embedded into the nature of the project through alternative formats including translations and ASL videos.
A full written version of the script–translated from English into Arabic, Bangla, Mandarin, Haitian Kreyòl, and Spanish–and a full visual translation of the script into ASL are available on our access page.
Una versión escrita completa del guión (traducida del inglés al árabe, bengalí, mandarín, criollo haitiano y español) y una traducción visual completa del guión al lenguaje de señas están disponibles en nuestra página de acceso.
我们的访问页面上提供了剧本的完整书面版本（从英语翻译成阿拉伯语、孟加拉语、普通话、海地克里奥尔语和西班牙语），以及剧本的完整视觉翻译成美国手语
লিপিটির একটি সম্পূর্ণ লিখিত সংস্করণ – ইংরেজি থেকে আরবি, বাংলা, ম্যান্ডারিন, হাইতিয়ান ক্রেওল এবং স্প্যানিশ ভাষায় অনুবাদ করা হয়েছে – এবং আমেরিকান সাইন ল্যাঙ্গুয়েজে লিপিটির সম্পূর্ণ দৃশ্যমান অনুবাদ আমাদের অ্যাক্সেস পৃষ্ঠায় পাওয়া যাবে।
Yon vèsyon ekri konplè nan ekriti a—tradui soti nan angle an arab, bengali, mandarin, kreyòl Ayisyen, ak panyòl—ak yon tradiksyon vizyèl konplè nan ekriti a nan lang siy ameriken disponib sou paj aksè nou an.
تتوفر نسخة مكتوبة كاملة من النص – مترجمة من الإنجليزية إلى العربية والبنغالية والمندرينية والكريولية الهايتية والإسبانية – وترجمة بصرية كاملة للنص إلى لغة الإشارة الأمريكية على صفحة الوصول الخاصة بنا
What does the artist hope to achieve in this project?
Over 3.6 million customers ride NYC’s public transit system everyday. It is one area of public space where New Yorkers interact with audible messaging regularly. Chloë Bass aims to draw communities together with this ephemeral project offering moments of surprise, reflection, levity, and connection. If you hear something, free something hopes to shift our quick responses to moments of stress, to build accountability to each other, and to connect the everyday to the big picture. In a city of millions of strangers, this work incites kindness between strangers and awareness between neighbors.
What other individuals or groups collaborated with or weighed in on the project?
To prepare for If you hear something, free something, Bass assembled a series of focus groups–consisting of a cross section of transit riders (teens, adults, and transit advocates) and MTA workers–to consider together what sounds and stories might call us to somewhere familiar, or bring us to a place of ease.
The resulting announcements are voiced by a series of professional performers, as well as by everyday New Yorkers, including Bass herself. The everyday New Yorkers were cast-on-the-street and collaborated by offering their voice in English and other languages such as Arabic, Bangla, Haitian Kreyòl, Mandarin, and Spanish in intimate translations of selected statements. In addition to the statements, the professional performers sang, whistled, and hummed to build a dynamic depth for each announcement.
A special thanks to the vocalists: Gelsey Bell, Jean Ann Douglass, Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, Rena Anakwe, Abdelrazek Abdelhamid, Calogero Gambino, Farah Mehreen Ahmad, Natalia Mendez, Olive Zwicky, Samantha Cortez, Vladimir Francois, Wilson Zhang, Ashley Grier, Samantha Riott, Samara Lubelski, Isabel Crespo, Pardo, Jimin Seo, Francisco Marquez; and ASL actors Zavier Sabió and Treshelle Edmond.
Contact
For other inquiries, please contact:
Creative Time | info@creativetime.org
MTA Arts & Design | arts@mtahq.org