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