completed: my massive study of the door knocker

last friday, after drinks at the gcb (to celebrate), i put the finishing touches on my door knocker project. this project represented the final (and only assignment) for a wonderful course i took this semester called 13 things.

frankly, i never though i would respect archaeology as much as i do now.

to compliment my research on the origins, types, and production of door knockers, i endeavored to do a field study of new england door knockers. initially, i planned on creating a photographic record of three different streets: spring street in newport, mt. vernon street in boston, and benefit street here in providence.

because it was closer, i started with benefit, and it ended up by being the only field study, but not because i was being lazy.

it took me a solid two weeks to get a photo of all the knockers on benefit street. there was around 60. about halfway through the street (starting on wickenden, and working towards north main), we read jonathan sterne’s the audible past, and i became convinced that i was privileging the visual element of the door knocker, and thereafter made audio recordings of the sound of all the knocker’s knocks.

i also interviewed about ten residents from the street, who gave me lots of interesting thoughts on the knockers. frankly, i could have never imagined how this seemingly simple survey of the door knocker would explode into a substantial study, with lots of field work. the good news is, i got more out of this project than almost anything i’ve done at brown (exception being osiris).

i also got to play with thoreau’s door knocker, which for reasons i don’t quite grasp, brown’s john hay library is in possession.

finally, this project afforded me a wonderful opportunity to invent some flash interfaces for hybridizing the information i collected about these door knockers. i am particularly proud of the thoreau knocker interface, which has proven to me how flash interfaces allow the gorgeous intersection of graphic design, programming, and media documentation (video, photos, etc.)

damn, i love flash.

and door knockers too, but that went without saying.