DROSS CITY

摘要

The word 'dross' refers to matter that is foreign, worn out and impure; it is a phantom material condition that is unnoticeable to such an extent that it almost does not exist in our perception. Dross is worthless; it is an incidental, displaced material, and a side-effect of chemical reactions that serves no purpose. Nevertheless, when it appears, a necessity is created for its removal. In time and through the use and misuse of language, the word has signified waste, impurity or any incongruous accumulation of disparate elements, pieces and material fragments. However, the etymological origin of the word refers to a residual substance that emerges in transitional material stages, such as the process of melting a metal or the sedimentation of a liquid. Dross therefore signifies more than an entropic landscape; it depicts material derailment and the production of displaced matter. Dross reminds us that pure operations of making belong to the sphere of impossibility.