Fine Dust Sensing Specimen catalogues the acts of measuring fine dust rather than the dust itself. Moving along a single axis of scale, from ultrafine particles of 100 nanometers through PM2.5 and PM10 to planetary-scale air pollution, it gathers every measuring practice currently in use in South Korea. Nineteen consumer-grade sensors sold on the domestic market, priced from ₩35,400 to ₩1,779,000, are laid out side by side and identified only by price and sensing method. The country's 519 official urban air monitoring stations are each recorded by installation year, street address, GPS coordinates, and a single photograph of the rooftop where they stand.
Atmospheric scientist Emma Garnett has pointed to a fundamental ambiguity in fine dust measurement: the question of what, exactly, is being measured is never only technical but always already social, ethical, political. This collection is built around that ambiguity. When the apparatus and the institution meant to capture dust become the specimen in place of the dust itself, what do we finally see?
Research, Planning, Production
Yeon Sung, Mina Kim
Graphic Design
STUDIO165
Printing
Chungmuro Printing School
Typeface
DungGeunMo Regular
Funding
Arts Council Korea, WRM
Image Sources
AirKorea
Environmental Satellite Center, National Institute of Environmental Research
