What Is “Digital Dust” and Should We Worry About Ours?

Dust, by its very existence, is literally the most material of things. It’s what is left of an object when all form, structure, context and legibility are stripped away — when the object is destroyed, and only the fact of its materiality remains.

Digital Dust leaves a trail behind

Therefore, dust would seem to be the antithesis of digital, the opposite of its binary 0s and 1s. Digital means data, virtual and immaterial; it’s black and…