The Materialised Temporality of Dust is an immersive VR experience that explores 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. The project 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.

The experience allows audiences to re-experience a 3D digital twin of an area at the RCA’s Kensington Campus. This site, previously subjected to dust sampling, serves as the backdrop for a journey through the lens of microbial life. Audiences are able to transition between different scales and perspectives, delving into the intricate spatial dynamics and temporal changes of the space. 

Through features such as adjustable fields-of-view, dynamic shaders imagining non-human visual spectrums, and simulated time fluctuations through audio and light effects, users are transported into a realm where environments appear to stretch and contract. This experimental approach allows us to interrogate the interplay between architectural elements, time, human presence, and microbial inhabitant, offering a new perspective that prioritises microbial experience of space and time over the conventional human-centric viewpoint.

The project 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.