Every electronic appliance has a very distinctive smell. If we sniff the inside of a computer or a television monitor, for example, we can identify the smell of hot metal, with a hint of lead that reminds us of the railway or the overheated chassis of a car parked in the summer sun. But we can also discern the characteristic smell of burnt dust, especially in old appliances that have not been switched on in a long time. The motes have drifted in through the ventilation slats, and when the apparatus is switched on they undergo a slow and precise combustion. These are the smells I associate with the work Scanner, and basically they are the smell of electricity, that invisible energy whose vital pulse is the lifeblood of our technologically advanced society.

Daniel Canogar, June 2009

The keyboard of a computer is associated above all with the sense of touch. Every day we intensely touch this interface with the electronic world. With use, slowly but surely the keys become worn and the letters start to be rubbed off (especially the “A” and “E”, which are the ones we hit most). Dust begins to collect between the keys, or crumbs of the toast we ate one day while reading the news on the Internet. The keyboard starts to become a container of the passing of time. The dust or the crumbs become a physical manifestation of something far more intangible which flows through the keyboard: letters, email messages, Excel sheets, ideas, projects, hopes, disappointments … An old keyboard smells of dust, which is the same as saying that it smells of its memories, if a keyboards can have a memory.

Daniel Canogar