Making Doorbells

Making Doorbells
Name	Making Doorbells
Location	H&D Studio
Date	2026/07/17
Time	11:00-16:00
PeopleOrganisations	Leo Scarin
Type	HDSC2026
Web	No
Print	No

This event is only for participants of the Summer Camp 2026 and not open to the public, want to join us: check the HDSC2026 Clouds to Commons Public Program

Smart home technology, with its origin in surveillance capitalism and data extraction, has flattened the most poetic aspect of a doorbell: its musicality!

Doorbells, in fact, have always been instruments of musical interaction - knockers, bells, chimes, rattles. They stage a performance: the visitor plays for the host who listens. Sometimes the performance surprises, sometimes it's eagerly awaited, sometimes it's just an inconvenient disruption. But inherently, doorbells are musical instruments - not cloud devices, for god's sake!

So, what happens to our way of relating to such an everyday technology when we design it *not* as a surveillance tool but as a musical instrument?

In this workshop, using buttons, buzzers, motors and oscillators, we will explore the potential for musicality and interaction in a doorbell's design. With cheap electronic components, repurposed materials and e-waste, we will make one together for the H&D studio!

No previous knowledge of electronics is required. The whole point is to build basic circuit literacy, cause a culture of repurposing tech starts with understanding it.

Timeline of the workshop (11h00-16h30)

• 11h00: welcome, introduction to workshop, icebreakers
• 11h15: build a button-buzzer circuit (30m)
• 11h45: add 555 oscillator (45m-1h)
• 12h45: musical demos with motors and scrap material (free make-and-break until lunch to build inspo)
• 13h30: lunch break
• 14h30: make your own piece of the circuit (a motor, a buzzer, a button, etc)
• 15h30: we put it together and run the first test of the doorbell!

Access note

• No electronic skills are required. But if you have them, please stick with (and support) someone who doesn't :)

Bio

Leo Scarin (he/him) is an artist and designer working with code.

Based in RGBdog studio, at KG95, in The Hague, Scarin's practice stretches across interactive media, moving image, and creative coding; intersecting disciplinary methods to research and problematise digital technology.

Scarin's work has been featured at V2_Lab, The Hmm, STRP, FIBER, AIxDesign, iii, IMPAKT, and more.

Scarin is currently a lecturer at KABK, ArtEZ, WdKA, and Design Academy Eindhoven.