As fans of reality television know, the spoiler alert is a web tradition for warning readers that results are about to be divulged — like who was sent home last night on Top Chef. Artist Jason Eppink and Newmindspace (which creates interactive public art) took the concept underground and posted some renegade — and pretty funny — Spoiler Alert signs beneath the real-time arrival signs in the New York City subway. (Either that, or they’re brilliant Photoshoppers.) The primary effect of the countdown signs, Eppink writes, is not to provide customer information but “to erode faith in the system, to create expectations that can’t always be met, to raise false hopes, and to erase the mystery and magic of the wondrous system that transports more than five million riders a day.” So the next time you’re standing on a crowded subway platform, wondering when the train will show up, take a minute to think about the mystery and the magic of the experience.
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