The Discovery of the Pocket Dust

This project zooms in on a microscopic world that we all unknowingly carry close to us. Dust—tiny particles smaller than half a micrometer (often composed of household dust, sand, skin flakes, hair, and/or food remnants)—accumulates through everything we do and can therefore reveal much about the traces of our lives. Referencing his thesis on our blind spot for personal data, which is massively collected on the internet through commercial profiling, this machine investigates pocket dust by analyzing its color, transparency, size, and hardness. It then translates this data into an abstract drawing. The results of the analysis, along with the dust samples from volunteers, are archived and exhibited so that visitors can see and imagine for themselves who might be behind the dust.