Digital Arts & Interactive Wayfinding (22 Miles Moynihan Train Hall 2021)

The new Moynihan Train Hall is filled with odes to the old Penn Station, but needed a fresh modernizing and updating of the entire facility intended to reclaim its status as “America’s front door.” Having recently won awards in 2020 for the Protection-as-a-Service suite of solutions which encompasses touch-less screens, interactive wayfinding, secure mobile control of new or existing digital screens on mobile devices, and thermal scanning software, 22Miles offered Moynihan a fresh infusion of dynamic and diverse technology, integrated into a solutions suite that was easily customized to the unique needs of the reinvigorated New York city transportation hub. Moynihan features interactive wayfinding displays that feature more than 10 language input options including English, Spanish, Mandarin, Italian, German, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Arabic. With a population as diverse as New York City, not to mention thousands of international travelers moving through the station daily, these flexible linguistic integration options were designed to serve the multi-cultural flow of individuals, while making everyone feel welcome and catered to. Additionally, Moynihan’s 22Miles installation also features full ADA compliance from elevators and accessibility alternate routes, as well as a digital magnifier, screen adjustments, and an operation index. Moynihan also features 22Miles’ Secure Mobile Control system, which allows contactless control of screens on a user’s mobile device. In a post-pandemic world where viral spread looks to be an issue even after vaccinations have become more common, the technology provides a fully touchless experience as users can operate the screen they are interacting with from their cell phone via a digital mouse curser. The solution requires no user downloads or extra steps, as a user can simply scan the provided QR code on each kiosk home screen which then allows for activation of a web link to accept the SMC controls. The QR codes are dynamic and encrypted, alleviating any concerns for meeting security protocols. Voice command interaction can also be easily added should Moynihan want to further the options for safe, hygienic interactivity. For more information on 22Miles interactive wayfinding, touchless touch, secure mobile control, Protection-as-a-Service, and additional multi-facility solutions, please visit http://www.22miles.com As part of this, Art at Amtrak, the official public art program of Amtrak, presents diverse, unique and memorable art projects to enhance, invigorate and humanize the travel experience at Amtrak stations. The art program reflects and celebrates each region's creative preeminence by featuring contemporary artists through rotating exhibitions. The program launched at New York Penn Station in June 2022, and expanded to Moynihan Train Hall in Summer 2023, to Washington Union Station and William H. Gray III 30th Street Station in Fall 2023. Artist Shahzia Sikander video art installation in Moynihan Train Hall is called Singing Suns, 2023. "Singing Suns is a video animation created from ink drawings. Disruption as a means of exploration is a consistent element in my experimental process strategy. The iconography is born from separating the silhouette of the head from the body of the female characters called gopis, who are often painted as devotees of the singular male god Krishna in South Asian historical manuscript paintings. To develop the feminine apparatus of power, I removed Krishna from the equation and then detached the gopi ‘hair’ from the gopi body’s restrictive gendered context in the traditional paintings to greater scope and autonomize. Painted gold hair shapes operate as a non-binary particle system. When multiplied into millions, they can move and morph, fluctuating between solid and fluid states, like the ocean or the desert or the milky way. The hair motif in their kinetic state can conjure new associations with shifting migratory patterns of birds, bats and insects. The flux is a metaphor for hyphenated identities, gender and vocabularies. To detach is to renew. The notion is to unhinge, so that the female account is freed to create its own history and empower its own narrative.