Xiaoyang Meng


Installation view, 2026

City: Open Score

 2026
Kinetic Sound Installation

Music box mechanisms, PVC punched strips, NEMA 17 stepper motors,  wooden bases, and video documentation

Xiaoyang Meng (Artist)&Laomie Huang(Technical Support)

 City: Open Score is a kinetic sound installation consisting of 9 mechanical music boxes and 8-meter-long punched strips. The artwork stems from artist Xiaoyang Meng's questioning of the "pseudo-randomness" found in modern computer programs. The artist seeks to find and preserve 'pure human variables' that cannot be calculated by algorithms. Since 2021, Meng has traveled across 7 countries and 12 regions, recording the flow of crowds on urban escalators. These real physical movements were then "translated" into physical notes on the music boxes. The work shows that even within these strict "physical algorithms," true randomness and human warmth still exist.

The title "Open Score" is borrowed from an experimental music term. In the exhibition space, music boxes representing different city time zones—such as London, Beijing, and Rome—operate simultaneously. Because the installation preserves the actual differences in escalator speeds, how people stood, and recording durations from each location, the punched strips run asynchronously (out of sync). It feels as if each city is spinning to its own time zone and rhythm; they occasionally intersect, only to pass each other by the next second. These staggered sounds generate "infinite melodic combinations," turning the site into a piece of music that will never repeat exactly the same way.

Perhaps art cannot immediately dissolve the barriers of our vast world. However, in this out-of-sync time and space, it reveals the plurality of human trajectories. It allows individuals on different paths to cross within the interlocking of mechanical gears, hearing a brief moment of resonance with one another.


The current baseline exhibition features 9 units, representing mapped data from 9 global regions: London, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Beijing, Jinan, Hong Kong, Seoul, Vatican City, and Florence. 
Installation view, 2026


Video Embed
As a piece of the City: Open Score project, the Escalator Behavioral Archive translates the flow of people on escalators into musical notes, archiving the unique daily rhythm of the city






Installation（single unit），2026
Installation detail（PVC punched strip），2026


Installation detail（Music box mechanism），2026




Installation detail，2026
Installation detail（PVC punched strip），2026






Escalator Archive Fast-Cut (LED Installation View)








This is the very first escalator video(2021) translated for the project, and it holds a special meaning for me. I see it as the 'mother' of all the films in this series. It has witnessed the entire evolution—from the initial 15-note hand-cranked music box to the 30-note automated installation we have today.
Score Generation: Visual-to-Audio Translation of a Single Escalator Video,  2021, Beijing CHINA


Location coordinates

 39.9756°N
16.4573°E
Beijing
China 43.7763°N
11.2494°E
Florence
Italy 38.7677°N
9.0974°W
Lisbon
Portugal 52.3780°N
4.8995°E
Amsterdam
Netherlands 36.6687°N
116.8863°E
Jinan
China 41.9063°N
12.4537°E
Vatican City 37.5110°N
127.0596°E
Seoul
South Korea 22.2788°N
114.1646°E
HongKong
China












Concept & Artistic Direction ： Xiaoyang Meng

Mechanical & Hardware Engineering： Laomie Huang

Field Research & Audiovisual Archive ：Xiaoyang Meng

Assembly ：Xiaoyang Meng , Sheng sheng

Special Thanks ：Geng yi , Sophie Clements


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