Dust in Material

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DUST IN MATERIAL

Dust in material

by Yan Xu

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DUST IN MATERIAL

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CSA Research Report

Project Details Project Lead:

Yan Xu

Design Participants:

Lucy Alice Jones

Title:

Dust in material

Type:

Interior interactive device

Location:

Kirk Lecture Theatre UCA Canterbury

Project Dates:

31 May - 23 August 2018 Show preparation 24 August 2018 - 31 August 2018 MA Final Show

Design Period:

31 May - 23 August 2018

Budget:

ÂŁ200

Scale:

6.7m x 2.9m x 2.9m (Lx Wx H)

Support:

University for the Creative Arts

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Fig.01. Dust images

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Research Agenda and Process Overview “Each bit of dust is a microhistory of your life,” Rob Dunn, a biologist at North Carolina State University.

Dust is an essential component element of nature and cannot be eliminated. Through dust, we can come to know our environment and climate better. Through this project, I hope more people can pay attention to their living environment.

We spend the majority of time lives indoors, where dust and human behavior interact with each other. So in this project, I will look at microbes in the dust as well as a test and observe the relationship between dust and every life and activates.

Research Questions 1.

How does the dust intertwine with our life?

2. How can dust be used as a material in interior design?

3. How might these change people’s awareness or perceptions of dust?

Fig.02. Research diagram

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Significance and Contribution The importance of environmental issues is well known what can an interior designer does in response to these questions?

During my postgraduate study, I did a lot of research on my topic dust, and also learn some designers used dust as a material in design.

I hope to connect the interior design space with the special material of dust, through this design can find the relationship between dust and space. As well as to create a removable device that combines dust and space in anywhere.

Methodologies 1.

Collect the dust in the room which is hard to see with the naked eye, and let the dust fall on the foam board naturally.

2. Design a frame as a supporting point for shooting, and parallel to move device to take photos of dust.

3. Dust details are photographed under a microscope and displayed with a dust-covered foam board.

Fig.03. Research diagram

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Design Proposal Building materials develop with our society and play an important role in architecture and interior design.

Each kind of material has its own distinctive, qualities and character, for example, red brick has the characteristic that shows ancient style, and ceramic tile is a kind of contemporary.

Dust as a material, I think its characteristics are record. PM2.5 is a kind of dust type in the place where I live, which is a kind of harmful particles to healthy, and the cause of the pollution made by anything in my city. But when I live in a city without PM2.5, I did a test to observe what’s kind of dust in my room, and I found most dust comes from the fabric.

So dust records the matter of the space. For example, if someone has a pet in their home, the pet’s hair must be in the family’s dust. If this person comes into your room and visits you, then maybe the dust that of the pet’s hair will be brought into your room, which is what I call the recording nature of dust.

First of all, I chose a 5mm foam board as the material covering the ground. Because the carpet is elastic, the foam board can carry the force of people walking up, and it will not cause the board to break.

And the size of the foam board is A2, but I recombined it into a size of 1 meter by 1 meter, because it is more regular in the whole room.

Secondly, I designed a frame of the shoot, and choose the acrylic, but the length is a problem, acrylic not in straight, so I joined wood in the middle for support acrylic. And because the shooting area of the microscope is very small, I added a scale on the frame to make it easier to shoot.

Key technological outcomes of proposal 1.

In order to apply this method and equipment to various Spaces, it is necessary to design a convenient frame to take pictures.

2. Use the foam board cover the carpet, after a period will collect indoor dust on foam board.

3. Images of dust are taken using the frame and combined with a microscope.

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Fig.03

Fig.04. Room Plan

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Design Research Context Field of Work In the book Immaterial Architecture, the author writes: “Distaste of dust, which is most extreme in the home, is a question of physical and psychological cleanliness, and ‘repression about the body. Coming to terms with dust is, therefore, coming to terms with the body and the reality of home-life…”, but she also introduces a designer, Ruth Silver.

She proposes it as a building material. And she collected the dust from the house to makes the dust collection hat and also use dust to make a dust door handle.

Work by others One of The inspirations was Jorge Otero-pailos’s series on The Ethics of Dust. In this project, he removed dust from the walls of historical buildings and put it on a sheet, which was then exhibited. More importantly, it gives visitors the independent imagination. What do you see on this sheet? Is it just dust, or is its history and events in the dust? So this is a very meaningful project about a monumental function of dust.

Fig.05.

Ruth Silver, Dust collection hat, 2004.

Courtesy of Ruth Silver.

DUST IN MATERIAL

Design Methodologies My design is a continuous project because every day the dust in the room falls on the board that I put on the floor. I will take pictures of an area and use a microscope to get the details of the dust each week.

Therefore, I will design a frame to assist my shooting, because the distance between the microscope and the foam board is tiny, so I will make sure to take all photos on the same horizontal. Images taken through the frame will be displayed through the projector.

Critical Design Elements 1.

Because of I will walk on the board as the usual time, so sometimes the board will move, and it need be adjusted frequently.

2. After using the Foam board for a period of time, the edge of the Foam board will be raised, and need use tape to keep it flat.

3. The frame material is soft, so the frame should not be moved during shooting.

Fig.06.

The series of Ethics of Dust - Jorge Otero-Pailos

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Prototyping and testing a. Backboard material testing Because I will use a microscope to observe the test board, and the lens of the microscope will magnify all the textures of the background, so I do some test of background materials. Finally, I chose the white foam board, because there are flat and don’t have any impurities.

a.Fig.07 Black-out cloth

a.Fig.08 White foam board

a.Fig.09 Black card board

a.Fig.10 Printing paper

a.Fig.11 Rubber

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b.Fig.12

b.Fig.13

b. Frame prototype c. First frame Use CNC to cut acrylic frame then use wood to support acrylic. d. Final frame Use cross to fix the frame and change to use wood strips to reduce the weight of the support. b.Fig.14

The placement point of the wooden bar was designed as the scale for take pictures. e. Dust Collection Cover the floor with A3 foam board and then divide it to 1m by 1m area. f. Fixed test Fixed the dust on foam board.

Spray glue too strong to cover the dust and hairspray can be both fixed dust and transparent to show dust on foam board.

b.Fig.15

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c.Fig.16

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c.Fig.20

c.Fig.19

c.Fig.21

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d.Fig.22

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e.Fig.27

04i

04l

e.Fig.28

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f.Fig.29

05d

f.Fig.30

05e

f.Fig.31

05c

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Fabrication Techniques Because the space is set to be covered with 1 meter *1 meter foam board, the structure of the frame is the same as the size of it. Acrylic materials are cut by CNC. The measuring board is also supported by wood strips and grooves have been made in the frame, one is for supporting the wood strips on the measuring board, as well as for the convenience of shooting.

05d

05e

Fig.32. Support frame

05f

As long as the space of 1m*1m can used this framework to observe the dust, all that is required is to combine cell phone or camera with a microscope and put it on this frame and device to take pictures of dust details.

Fig.33. Photograph frame

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Control Systems a. Materials Because the foam board is white and want the frame and the foam board as a whole part. so support frame uses transparent acrylic, photograph frame uses white acrylic. Because the acrylic is soft and has a length of 1m, hardwood dowel are used to support the frame.

movement distance support frame.

of

the

c. Equipment Chose a device with wheels so don’t need to move the phone off the frame to keep the same level of photography.

b. Frame design Because the lens of the microscope is very small, in order to control the shooting distance, a ruler was designed on the shooting frame to control the movement of the equipment.

Grooves are designed on the support frame to control the

Fig.34

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Occupation and Interaction This design is to test the dust in my room, hoping that the detection of small space can experience the relationship with the natural environment. Part of the device is a one-meter square frame with acrylic and hardwood dowel, the device’s interaction is the accumulation of dust over a period, and the distribution of household dust can be seen with the naked eye.

In the process, tiny particles of dust can be observed using devices like microscopes and mobile phones and can be done in most space.

In the exhibition, the middle wall of the whole space will use a projector to display the dust image taken by the microscope, which is also the most prominent part of the space. The room plan and the foam board will appear on the left wall and a small projector is also used to project images of the actual size of the dust. The space on the right will be a display and interactive area. I will place a desk the same size as my desk in my room and display the foam board on the wall in the area where the table is located. There will also be a small frame on the table where visitors can take pictures of the dust using their mobile phones combined with the equipment on the table. I think this is a way for the audience to feel the dust around us, and also to see

Fig.03

Fig.35. Exhibition proposal

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Dissemination and Future Work In this design, only the framework is physical, so can do this simply by combining the framework with some devices. For this design similar to a study of dust, but we can use the simplest way to look at the sources of dust in space, and learn about our daily habits through dust, also better understand the natural environment by understanding the small space such as in the tiny microscope lenses.

Fig.36. Microscope lens size

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Fig.37 Final rendering

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Appendix Materials and Suppliers List Acrylic (from UCA, Canterbury)

A3 size Hardwood dowel (from UCA, Canterbury)

9mm * 2400mm Foam board (from Cowling & Wilcox Ltd, Canterbury)

A3 size

Canford card - jet black (from Cowling & Wilcox Ltd, Canterbury) A1 size Heavy duty spray adhesive (from Wilko, Canterbury) Got2b spray (from Superdrug, Canterbury) Glow tape (from Amazon.com)

Bibliography Anthes, E., Keefe, P., Farrow, R., Melnick, J., Mayer, J., Borowitz, A., Yong, E., Eakin, E., Anthes, E. and Keefe, P. (2018). What Your Dust Says About You. [online] The New Yorker. Available at: https://www. newyorker.com/tech/elements/what-your-dust-says-about-you [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].

Jorge Otero-Pailos. (2018). The Ethics of Dust Series. [online] Available at: http://www.oteropailos.com/the-ethics-of-dust-series/ [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].

Hill, J. (2006). Immaterial architecture. London: Routledge.

DUST IN MATERIAL

Image Credits All figures are copyright the author unless noted as follows: Figure 05: copyright to book <Immaterial architecture>, Dust, page 105 Figure 06: Jorge Otero-Pailos. (2018). The Ethics of Dust Series. [online] Available at: http://www.oteropailos.com/the-ethics-of-dustseries/ [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].

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Credits MA Architecture Course Leader: Lucy Alice Jones MA Architecture Design Tutor: Lucy Alice Jones Owain Caruana-Davies Kim Trogal Anna Holder Luke

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