Housework Commons: Rheostat Rotary Rack

This paper describes the creation of a NIME, Rheostat Rotary Rack (RRR), based on a rotary drying rack. Part of the Women's Labor feminist project that creates Embedded Acoustic Instruments using old domestic tools, RRR is anchored by a base that acts as resonator for the system and includes sensors—potentiometers (rheostats) and a rotary encoder—embedded into its physical architecture. RRR detects the weight of hanging clothes and velocity of rotation by hand or wind. Motivated by the feminist concept of reproductive commons, we invite the public to do and witness communal housework in interactive installation and musical performance, in order to challenge gender inequality in domestic work division. A composition written for RRR, A Body of Resistance, draws upon quotes by rheostat inventor Mary Hallock-Greenewalt to address women's struggles for equal treatment. The sound designs for RRR and A Body of Resistance take inspiration from the drying rack’s original wind-powered utility, using aerophone sounds and vibrational modelling of pipes and bars. By reimagining domestic tools with embedded technologies, we envision a musical housework commons that can act as a catalyst for social change.