Name of Project: The Conspicuous Door
People and Roles;
- Thierry Brodeur, Concept lead, set construction cement, and carpentry
- Thomas Trudel, Concept lead, carpentry
What is it?
The purpose of this project is to create an intervention in a public space that will impact its visitors and change the way the environment is usually perceived. The idea behind the conspicuous door is to construct and place a massive, freestanding door in a highly trafficked and sensibly serious environment to provoke a reaction from the public. This door will be designed and built to appear heavy, solid, and unmovable as if the hand of god were the only one to place it on earth. It will also have the mandate to intrigue passerby and create a sense of wonder and fantasy as they examine, question, manipulate, and attempt to open the inexplicable door, which has mysteriously appeared from the heavens or possibly another world entirely.
How does it engage the human participant?
We’ve designed this as an interactive piece in the sense that we are expecting the public to examine and try to open the door. The door will be locked in order to uphold that mystery of what might be hiding behind it. The classical thick frame of the door will be created in a way to illustrate strength and fantasy, the old locked door will appear used and welcoming as if many people have already crossed its threshold.
What are your project's most salient features, symbolically, experientially from the perspective of the prospective visitor?
Anywhere there is a locked door there is a speculation to be made, what is on the other side. What we wish to symbolize through this intervention is that there is a world beyond the routine. Many of us become dependent on it, following a daily schedule that seemingly makes us contempt as we try and get by with our every day lives. But sometimes we become so accustomed to these routines that we get lost in them and forget that there exists a vast world around us. Our intervention will be placed in such an environment, where students, teachers and business people alike habitually pass by to reach their premeditated locations, where the train of thought is focused primarily on work and exams. What we wish to express by placing our door in that setting is to remind the audience that there exists a magical world beyond the one they’re living in, filled with endless adventure and unexplored wonders. The way the door will be built and designed is to imitate a magical portal to new and uncharted worlds, an idea common place in fantasy tales such as The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. While many will look through the keyhole in hopes to get a glimpse of a fairy tale worlds, it is the realization that it is our own world that lies on the other side, the one we live in everyday that holds these magical wonders that we so often forget. And though it may be difficult at times, it is up to us to unlock the door and cross its threshold.
Why should an inhabitant of Concordia be interested in your installation-event?
Like any other art project, we hope that our project will inspire our fellow classmates in future projects of theirs. Our intervention will take place during what might be for many, the busiest time of the year. For many of us Concordia inhabitants, we will be in the middle of our final exams, stressed out and completely focused on the work. This piece might be considered a symbol for escape, is intended to capture their attention. In a way, the door will separated from their tasks at hand and have open a whole new thought process as they try and uncover the meaning of existence behind the conspicuous door. What the door represents will very from person to person. For some, it might be that there is no living in the fantasy world because it seems inaccessible, while others it might be to challenge it in order to cross its threshold. In any case, we believe that it is important not to over exaggerate the little things in life, to take a step away from routine and attempt something new. There is a vast world out there as unique as any found in the pages of a book and never enough time for one to experience it all.
Why should someone who's not at Concordia, and may not experience your installation-event be interested in your intervention?
While our intervention will be situated in front of the elevator lobby of the main floor of Concordia’s EV building, on the department of engineering side, the Conspicuous Door could potentially be placed anywhere there is a consistent circulation of people. A popular shopping mall, a busy sidewalk or park; these are only a few examples of its possible locations. The principle of our piece will always remain the same, attempting to divert the attention of anyone focused on their travels or destination from point A to point B and for those who are already out exploring the world, to offers a unique and unusual experience. Because it is uncommon that people who are tied down with routine take the chance to experience such things, we have taken it upon ourselves to bring this encounter to them.
In “The Society of the Spectacle” by Guy-Ernest Debord, he talks about commodity as a spectacle and how commodity’s reification assume influential importance both for the objective evolution of society and the opinion adopted of it by men. He then goes on about describing how as labor is progressively rationalized and mechanized, man’s lack of will is reinforced by the way in which his activity becomes decreasingly less active and more contemplative. This idea of mankind becoming more mechanized correlates strongly with society’s increasing dependency on routine, which we have tried to illiterate with our Conspicuous Door and purchased. In the end, we hope placing the door in unconventional environments we can draw attention to the society’s reliance on routines.
Milestones / Timetable:
o Door Designs – November 10 - 17
o Purchase Building Requirements – November 23
o Construction of the door – November 29 - December 7
o Presentation – December 8
Deliverable:
o Door
o Door Frame
o Artisit’s Statement
o Website with Image and Video Documentation
o DVD with complete report
Resources needed:
o Door
o Hinges
o Screws and Nails
o Wood (2x4’s plywood, moldings…)
o Lock & Handle
o Cement
o Paint
o Plaster and putty
o Access to tools and building equipment
References:
o C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia, 1950
o Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865
o Guy-Ernest Debord
Documentation
From the early beginnings of this project, we were met with several technical challenges. The first and probably most difficult task was to design a door that would be capable of standing independently as well as be strong enough not to topple over when physical contact is applied. The second challenge was to have a fast and easy set up. For theses two complications, we designed the door to be made up of four separate parts. By separating the door in such a way, it would make storing, transferring and installing the pieces a lot easier. These parts consist of the door itself, two large columns to act as the support and frame, and a horizontal bar that connects the two pillars to complete the doorframe. In order to let the door free-stand we intend on filling the base of the two columns with cement, this should provide the necessary stability required for any interaction with the door.
The construction of the door went fairly well. We used a regular and sandwiched it between two pieces of plywood that we made to resemble an old antique door. The door was then painted in a way that it would appear used and worn-down with time. The horizontal bar that would appear above the door was quickly and ready for texturing and painting. The door handle was an actual closet handle from Thomas’s apartment but because the Conspicuous Door is two times the thickness of a regular door, we had to create our own metal piece to screw the handles into the door and still allow it to twist like a regular handle.
The most difficult part of our build was in the creation of the two pillars. After a bit of planning, we built two long boxes that had compartments at their bases that were then filled with cement. The boxes were then sealed and set aside for the cement to dry. The majority of the problems came when dealing with the finishing of the pillars. Because they were made of different types of wood, the textures were uneven and looked bad. So for a solution and after many trial and errors, we decided to cote the pillars with drywall putty, giving it an equal texture all around. The moldings were then installed and then everything was sanded and painted.
After the construction of the door, we were struck with the reality of transporting all the pieces from our workshop two downtown Montreal. We decided we would wrap the pieces with moving blankets and strapped them to the top of Thierry’s Jeep. Once arrived at Concordia’s EV building, it would only be a matter of bringing in the four pieces to the site of the intervention and quickly screw the sections of the door together in their mounted positions.
