Soil Matters exhibition at Design Museum’s Gallery 04/09/2020 – 10/01/2021
Instructions for collecting soil samples for the Soil Laboratory at the Soil Matters Exhibition:
Here you can see the results of scanned soil samples
Choosing a location:
We recommend collecting samples from locations that are potentially contaminated with heavy metals due to local history. However, avoid areas that have already been found polluted, such as areas with industrial plants or mining sites, urban areas and areas with heavy traffic or agriculture. You can pick a location that you find interesting because of its history, colour of the soil or a personal connection.
You will need:
A clean, resealable one-litre plastic zip bag (Minigrip or similar) for the sample – a spade, a garden spade or a scoop or other type of a digging tool made of plastic or stainless steel
Taking a soil sample:
1. Find an area of a few square metres in size with soil of relatively consistent quality.
2. Take soil samples from 3–5 spots in the area, and remove the top surface of soil from the samples.
3. Remove any larger parts of roots and plants as well as stones from the samples.
4. Place all the samples collected from one spot into the same zip bag.
5. Write down the date, details of the location where the sample was collected (address or GPS data) and a short description – one sentence or so – of the history of the place and/or conditions/quality of the soil.
6. Keep the soil sample out of reach of children and animals.
Instructions for sending the sample
You can attach a story of the location, a screenshot from your mobile of the map of the location or photographs of the conditions and history of the area. You can enclose this information with the sample as print-outs or send them by e-mail to the address: soilmatters.soillab@hotmail.com
Heavy metal concentrations will be measured from selected materials and some of them will be processed into ceramic samples. These will indicate the colour of the burnt soil and its other qualities. Data of the analysed soil samples will also be posted on the website of the Empirica research project of the Aalto University.
If you want the name of the sender (person/association/organization) recorded in connection to this data, indicate this in the e-mail message or when sending the soil sample. Include your own e-mail address in the dispatch, and you will receive a free entry ticket to the Soil Matters exhibition.
We prefer to receive the soil samples early on, during August and September 2020. Samples will be accepted until December.
Send the soil sample to the address:
Design Museum, Soil Matters, soil sample
Korkeavuorenkatu 23, 00130 Helsinki
