Research · Object Design · Visual Communication
Who actually decides what is valuable?
We learn to count money, to hoard gold, and to understand possessions as a sign of wealth. At the same time, we can destroy livelihoods and book this process as economic gain.
Dirty Soil explores this contradiction: How do our ideas of value arise – and why does the meaning of something often go unnoticed as long as it is not expressed in a price?
Rings and bars made of earth bring together two value systems. The shapes represent wealth and security. The material represents ecological relationships, whose significance exists independently of whether we assign them a market value.
Central Question
How do our standards of value arise – and why do they lead us to carefully preserve some things while destroying others despite their fundamental importance?
Background
Our ideas of value are shaped by culture, habits, economic systems and design. Money makes particularly clear how much value depends on shared trust and social agreements. It influences what becomes possible, what is considered worthwhile and what counts as success.
Living soil matters whether or not we recognise its value. Yet the measures that guide our decisions only partially account for the organisms that inhabit it and their ecological relationships.
Dirty Soil therefore questions these measures themselves: What do they capture? What do they leave out? And what are the consequences?
Approach
The project uses familiar symbols of wealth to challenge how we assign value. Soil takes the form of a ring or an ingot, placing it in a context where we expect something precious.
This shift invites us to examine our own judgement: Has the material changed? Its significance? Or simply our willingness to pay attention to it?
Asking about soil’s carat value thus becomes a question about the measure itself.