Door alarms

I wanted to call this post 'Door Bells' but then that sort of implies the opposite of what this little experiment was about. I've been thinking more about the corridor and the ways I can make the space an open area that everyone uses- not just somewhere to pass through on the way in and out of our rooms. The idea stemmed from how whenever we enter the corridor a light sensor registers our presence and the light flickers on. I liked this sense of being welcomed into a space. I thought I could extend this so that a bell of some sort registers when we have opened our doors. As I've mentioned before, we all prop our doors open when we're feeling sociable so that everyone can come and go from the corridor and each other's rooms. So the bells would indicate when we were propping our doors open- like a call to everyone else in the flat to be sociable.

So far I've made 'bells' for Claudia, Laura and me. Each time I've only used things that belong to each person so as to project each person into the annex of the corridor. Claudia does a lot of dance and has a hip scarf for belly dancing which is covered in little jangling medallions. For Laura I made a wire frame to hook a tin around the door handle, then I filled the tin with her rings. Finally for me, I made a chime out of my cutlery ( I'm known as the mum of the flat, because I cook a lot so it seemed to fit). I attached a nut (as in nut and bolt) to a string that then attached to my door handle so the chime rang.

Claudia's room

If anyone knows why these photos automatically rotate themselves please let me know!

Laura's room

My Room

I'm not completely sure where this idea is going to lead me to next. I could put the chimes up one evening and film the corridor to see all the alarms going off. I could also make a tally of how many times I hear each different alarm. I'm not sure, but I'll keep you (meaning mum, dad, annie and granny) posted.