rhythm assemblage: selected los angeles stairways (2025)
kinetic installation
stepper motors, disk cams, music wire, timing belts, custom hardware, custom software. Courtesy of the Artist.
Rhythm Assemblage: Selected Los Angeles Stairways translates the physical rhythms of Los Angeles's public stairways and surrounding landscapes into a series of mechanical and sonic compositions. Using a custom-built device akin to a pedometer, Stein indexed each step of his movement through local stairways an approach that prioritizes an embodied, performative experience rather than conventional data collection.
The resulting disks are inscribed with this motion data, transforming patterns of ascent, descent, and environmental movement into continuous rotations and percussive sound. This translation is less about recording time or distance than about capturing the visceral rhythm of walking.
Selected Los Angeles Stairways maps nine stairways across Echo Park and Silver Lake, each represented by a rotating disk whose rhythmic pattern reflects its unique topography and pace of traversal. Viewed together, these individual scores form a composite rhythm of the city's public pathways, working in tandem with Palm in Wind (XY) to render movement as both mechanical and musical.
Order of disks within the artwork are from left to right
- Baxter Stairs (Echo Park) - 34.0883° N, 118.2472° W
- Avalon Stairs (Echo Park) - 34.0858° N, 118.2509° W
- Laveta Terrace Stairs (Echo Park) - 34.0766° N, 118.2555° W
- Grafton-Lucretia Stairs (Echo Park) - 34.0813° N, 118.2564° W
- Redesdale Rotary Stairs (Silver Lake) - 34.0903° N, 118.2704° W
- Cicero-Redcliff Stairs (Silver Lake) - 34.0901° N, 118.2721 W
- Music Box Steps (Silver Lake) - 34.0831° N, 118.2752° W
- Descanso Stairs (Silver Lake) - 34.0852° N, 118.2757° W
- Micheltorena Stairs (Silver Lake) - 34.0872° N, 118.2760° W
Photo: Isik Kaya