The materialised temporality of dust: developing a biodesign methodology to spatialise time and temporalise space

Abstract

The paper uses the material and conceptual figure of dust and matter out of place to amplify more-than-human perspectives of time, to trace the changing orientations and ethos of a site. Dust contains a complex mixture of inorganic and organic material, made up of an exuberance of microbial life such as Penicillium, Aspergillus, Cladosporium, and around twenty other fungal sources. We are interested in dust as a material and metaphorical device to situate and critique temporality, and the way we narrate and investigate the past and future, from a non-human, microbial point of view. Dust implies residual matter, a contradiction to order often associated with dirt. It indicates something that needs to be removed, rearranged, something that is “out of place”, an element that does not fit. Dust also indicates time and space, signals movement and life: dust hosts a medley of nonhumans particles and microbial communities that engage in their own worldmaking practices. The paper brings together methods of ‘un-cleaning’ with archival research, and spatial methods of 3D scanning, modelling and mapping, as an opportunity to decentre human hubris and explore the ways in which non-humans have and continue to inhabit “our” spaces. keywords: Dust, Temporality, Nonhumans, Site reading, Speculation, biodesign