Dusts Chambers - What does a dust sensor see?

Dusts Chambers – What does a dust sensor see? / 粉尘箱. 灰尘传感器能看见什么？

Adam Hudec and Tomas Tichomirov

Most of us, as data says, live in cities suffering from a constant high level of airborne dusts pollution. Yet, we do not perceive the 18 kilograms of dusts that every human being on average inhales in a lifetime. Therefore we developed devices that deconstruct air pollution into readable data and visualise the information that describe dust processes in atmosphere in a precise but not always factual ways. These devices are dust detectors, simple optical sensors counting the number of particles within a certain volume of air.

Dusts sensors constantly monitor the movement of airborne dusts particles on the scale of a street, city, country and globally. Visualization of particulate matter clearly links the human presence mirrored in amount of particles in the air. Therefore, we perceive airborne dusts as a medium of transformation and contact between the human and the non-human world, between nature and culture. Through this medium we can understand the impact of our actions upon the environment.

Dusts Chambers exceed our perception of airborne dusts that is invisible to naked human eye. By rendering an urban (air) condition readable by sensors only we can reconstruct a dusts-measuring-device in a way that makes it not only a device producing data, but also offers an interactive and sensual experience between humans, technology and the urban environment.

The interactive experience is curated by real airborne dusts collected on different places in Shenzhen, meeting in a single exhibition space. Dusts Chambers are technological devices to help us perceive the environment, they act almost as a human sixth sense: to perceive, to feel, to see and to smell the invisible. Dusts Chambers are time accelerating machines which foresee our futures through dusts. They are interactive instruments which highlight the relationship between human and non-human world. Exteriorized, uncontrolled and invisible processes of motion, transformation and contact take place within the devices and are rendered perceptible by the naked eye. These chambers combine, separate, contain, release and act as technological entities for the dust could become the only collective trace we leave on Earth.

数据显示，我们大多数人生活在空气污染严重的城市。然而，我们并没有察觉到，每个人一生中平均吸入的粉尘达18公斤。因此，我们开发了能将空气污染解析为可读数据的设备，并以精确但不一定真实的方式，将这个解析过程可视化。这样的设备就是粉尘传感器，一种简单的光学传感器，可以计算一定体积空气中的颗粒数量。

粉尘传感器对街道、城市、国家和全球范围内空气中尘埃粒子的移动进行持续监测。颗粒物质的可视化清楚地将人类存在与空气中颗粒的数量相关联。因此，我们认为空气中的尘埃是人类与非人类世界之间、自然与文化之间的媒介。通过这种媒介，我们能够了解自身行为对环境的影响。

粉尘箱让我们对肉眼无法看见的空气尘埃的认知有了超越。通过传感器读取城市（空气）条件，我们可以改造尘粉尘检测装置，使其不仅可以生成数据，还可以提供人类、技术和城市环境之间的互动和感官体验。

我们把从深圳不同地方收集的真实粉尘放置在同一个展览空间，来创造一种交互式体验。“粉尘箱”是帮助我们感知环境的技术设备，就像人类的第六感一样：唤醒我们的觉知，帮助我们感受、看到和闻到无形的事物。它是时间加速器，通过粉尘预测我们的未来，也是一种互动工具，突显人类与非人类世界之间的关系。在设备内，所有外部化、不受控制和不可见的运动、转化和接触等过程都将肉眼可见。粉尘箱结合、分离、容纳、释放和充当技术实体，尘埃可能成为我们在地球上留下的唯一的共同痕迹。

Credits:

Adam Hudec, Tomas Tichomirov, RESPILON Group (sponsorship), Design Trust (sponsorship), Dusts Institute (research support).