ROSIE MCKENZIE

The Aristoknocker is a project from early in my second year at GSA. I was looking for an opportunity to add some humour and playfulness into my work. The brief for this project was to create a persona and an artefact that this persona would desire. Our persona and artefact had to revolve around an assigned word and an object. I was assigned the word ‘refined’ and the object ‘doorbell’. I got to know my persona, Isobel, very well and develop the idea that she was very interested in upward social mobility. She tried hard to keep up with her aristocratic friends and constantly focussed on putting on a collected, effortless façade. I developed the Aristoknocker doorbell to help Isobel always be prepared for when her well-to-do friends stopped round. The doorbell was an artefact that had to be completed by the user. When inserted into the doorbell, each ringer, disguised as a keyring, would complete the bell. This created an air of exclusivity and complemented my 'refined' persona. Each keyring rang with a different material hitting the glass, creating a different sound and alerting Isobel to whom exactly was at the door. This ensured she was never caught off guard by a respectable friend dropping by.