The first doorbell, or door knocker really, was likely an invention in Ancient Greece. Athens, to be precise. However, at that time, the door knocker was a slave put to wait at the door entrance. Instead of realising how wrong it was to do this, it was mostly inconvenience that pushed the door kocker to the ring-on-backplate design we still sometimes see today. 

As with anything the Greeks did, the Romans took it, pretended they invented it, and spread it around their empire. 

Later is was the dastardly Victorians (we're really visiting all the Western arrogant bastards here, now are we?) who did some innovation. Living in their grand estates, it was a hassle if you couldn't hear the door knocker. So, mechanical doorbells arose. There were multiple variants, and if you have a fancy bell on your bicycle, yours might work sorta similar. But because it was all mechanical, lots of maintenance was required.

Throughout the 19th century, various people would invent the electrical doorbell, and by the beginning of the 20th century, they were commonplace. Since then, not much innovation was done, except for removing the wires, replacing the bell with a recording of a bell (or a recording of yourself, perhaps?) or creating an Azazon-ran panopticon filming your and your neighbours every move from your porch. None of these innovations are particularly helpful. 

The doorbell that's part of this installation however, is unlike any of these, and though it functions similar to a doorbell, in that pressing it will do something with a door, that's about where the similarities end. This doorbell does not comment on the other doorbells, not even on the Amazon panopticon system. Just uh, push the button please.