Five hundred years of losing things, in fourteen paintings.
People have been losing things for as long as they have owned them. So each painting is made in the manner of a different moment in painting, from a Renaissance garden to 1980s oil stick. Here each one hangs in full, with the facts the dive has no room for. Press any pink ring to fall into that painting.
Fourteen plates, then fair questions.
The fourteen plates
Sunglasses · 300 m
01 / 14The Departure
Things leave
Sunglasses. Keys. The bear they cannot sleep without. Everything you own is quietly trying to get away from you.
Every pink thing in this painting has a Speck on it.
Plate 01. The Departure. Five things leaving, and five Specks going with them. In the manner of an Italian Renaissance garden picture, interrupted.Dive into this painting
A Speck is a tracker the size of a full stop. Press one onto anything you own and your phone can always find it.
The dive crops every painting to fit your screen. Here each one hangs whole, with the facts the dive has no room for. Every pink ring is a way in: press one and you fall into that painting.
Sunglasses · 12 m
02 / 14Sunday, 08:14
Left behind
Your phone tells you before the door has closed. You are still on the pavement, so you turn round.
SunglassesLeft behind. Cafe table, by the door. 12 m from you. Walk back, or ring it.
Plate 02. Sunday, 08:14. One Speck on acetate. Table, chair, nobody. In the manner of American realism, 1930s.Dive into this painting
Look at the left temple. That pink dot is the only part of this painting that knows where it is.
When
As you leave, not an hour later. The alert comes while turning round is still easy.
Where
The last place your phone heard it, named the way you would name it: cafe table, by the door.
Then
Walk back, or make it ring. The dome itself is the sounder, so there is no hole to clog.
Glove · 2.4 km
03 / 14Saturday night, one glove
Found by strangers
Far from you, any passing phone reports where it is. Nobody in this street knows they helped. Only you can read the answer.
iPhone and Android, on both of their finding networks.
Plate 03. Saturday night, one glove. One Speck on leather. Forty phones, none of them yours. In the manner of American modernism, 1940s.Dive into this painting
Who reports it
Any phone that walks past, on Apple's finding network or Google's. One Speck joins both.
Who can read it
Only you. The report is locked to your phone before it leaves theirs.
What they learn
Nothing. Not that they helped, not what it was, not whose it is.
Lunchbox · 900 m
04 / 14One street, printed on a sweatshirt
It learns your day
The app notices where your things live and when you carry them. Then it speaks only when something is out of place.
- You left the cafe. Your sunglasses did not.
- The school coat came home. The lunchbox did not.
- You are leaving for a flight. Your passport is on the hallway shelf.
Home
Keys are on the hallway shelf, since 08:14.
Cafe
You left. Your sunglasses did not.
Tram
Your umbrella is still riding. A passing phone just saw it.
School
The coat came home. The lunchbox did not.
Park
The dog thinks the gate is a suggestion. He is by the bench.
Airport
You are leaving for a flight. Your passport is on the hallway shelf.
Plate 04. One street, printed on a sweatshirt. Shown pinned to cotton, like a stud. A line drawing printed on cotton, the present day.Dive into this painting
The thinking stays on your phone, which is how the Speck stays small.
A Speck only has to say here I am. Your phone learns where each thing lives and when you carry it, and warns you when the pattern breaks.
Headphones · 40 m
05 / 14Twenty four of you
Is this you
- I have bought the same sunglasses three times.
- My child comes home with one glove and no jumper.
- My bag went to Lisbon. I went to Lagos.
- The remote is in the sofa. It is always in the sofa.
Everyone here has a pink dot on the thing they would hate to lose.
Plate 05. Twenty four of you. Silkscreen, twenty four panels, one dot each. In the manner of pop silkscreen, 1960s.Dive into this painting
If you travel
Passport, case, headphones, the charger you only own one of.
If you have children
Coats, bears, lunchboxes, and once in a while the child.
If you make things
The good drill, the camera, the violin that is worth more than the car.
If you are simply you
Glasses, keys, the umbrella, and the remote that lives in the sofa.
Headphones · 6.0 m
06 / 14Twenty four things, one dot each
Any surface
Peel it off the card and press it on. That is the whole job, and there is nothing else to buy.
- Press
- Metal, glass, acetate, wood, leather
- Pin
- Coats, jumpers, bags, soft toys
- Loop
- Necklaces, laces, zips, straps
Plate 06. Twenty four things, one dot each. In the manner of pop silkscreen, 1960s.Dive into this painting
Everything in a set: five Specks on their card, five spare cells, pads, pins, loops and the key. A visualisation.
Press
For anything hard. Every Speck arrives with its pad already on. Peel, press for five seconds, done.
Metal, glass, acetate, ceramic, wood, hard plastic, leatherPin
For anything woven. It goes through the cloth like a stud and clicks into a locking back that small hands cannot pull off.
Coats, jumpers, bags, shoe tongues, soft toysLoop
For anything that hangs. A ring the width of a chain link threads through and screws shut.
Necklaces, laces, zips, straps, wire frames
Actual size · 1.4 m
07 / 14Four domes behind glass
Hide it or show it
A Speck comes in four finishes. Pick the one that vanishes into the thing, or the one that looks like it was always part of it.
- Onyx
- Gold
- Steel
- Clear
The pink ones in these paintings are only pink so you can find them.
Plate 07. Four domes behind glass. Painted board, enamel, and one dot at actual size. In the manner of a pop wall relief, 1960s.Dive into this painting
Onyx
Dark frames, cameras, bags. It reads as a rivet.
Gold
Earrings, necklaces, watch clasps. It passes for jewellery.
Steel
Keys, tools, zips. It looks like part of the hardware.
Clear
Glass and anything pale. The quietest of the four.
Bear · 18 m
08 / 14The garden of things that came home
For small people
Children lose things. And once in a while, for one long minute in a busy shop, you lose them.
Pin a Speck inside a coat collar and your phone knows which aisle. A pinned Speck locks shut. It is not for children under three.
Plate 08. The garden of things that came home. In the manner of a visionary crayon drawing, mid century.Dive into this painting
A pinned Speck locks onto its back and does not pull off.
The cell is sealed inside the steel base. Like any small object it is not for children under three, and we are building the base to the safety rules for button cells.
Sunglasses · 4.0 m
09 / 14It took the punch
Why it stays on
A Speck weighs a twentieth of a gram and has no edge to catch. The pad cures hard instead of staying sticky.
- 0.05 g
- What a Speck weighs
- 3 kg
- What the cured bond holds
- 60 times
- Margin when it hits a tiled floor
Plate 09. It took the punch. One Speck on tortoiseshell, still attached. In the manner of American realism, 1920s.Dive into this painting
| What tries to remove it | Force | The bond holds |
|---|---|---|
| Its own weight | 0.05 g | 60,000 times over |
| A drop onto a hard floor | 50 g | 60 times over |
| Rubbing in a pocket | 200 g | 15 times over |
| A fingernail picking at it | 1 kg | 3 times over |
It comes off only when you twist it with the key in the box. Each set comes with ten fresh pads, so a Speck can move to the next pair.
Bicycle · 60 m
10 / 14Morning, noon, night
Half a year
One cell runs a Speck for three to six months. The app warns you weeks ahead, and five spares come in the box.
- Twist
- The Speck opens
- Drop
- In goes a spare cell
- Twist
- Shut in half a minute, and it keeps its name
Plate 10. Morning, noon, night. Three panels, one bicycle, one dot in each. In the manner of a pop dot painting, 1960s.Dive into this painting
The app warns you at 15%, weeks ahead.
Twist the Speck open, drop in one of the spare cells from the box, twist it shut. It takes about half a minute and the Speck keeps its name. In good light it lasts longer, because a light cell under the dome pays some of the power back.
Passport · 5.6 km
11 / 14Everything you love, kept close
Only yours
Nobody else can read where your things are. Not the strangers whose phones helped, and not us.
If a Speck that is not yours ever travels with you, your phone tells you and can make it ring. That alert is built into iPhone and Android.
Plate 11. Everything you love, kept close. In the manner of a visionary crayon drawing, mid century.Dive into this painting
It changes its name
Every fifteen minutes a Speck announces itself under a new encrypted name, so nobody can follow one by listening for it.
It cannot follow you
Speck supports the unwanted tracker alerts built into iPhone and Android. If a Speck that is not yours travels with you, your phone tells you, and you can make it ring to find it.
Pair five · 60 cm
12 / 14The founder's ledger
Four pairs
Speck began after its founder lost four pairs of good sunglasses. One set costs less than any of them did.
Pair five has a Speck on the temple. It is still here.
Plate 12. The founder's ledger. Oil stick on canvas, four crossings out. In the manner of neo-expressionist oil stick, 1980s.Dive into this painting
Pair one, a taxi. Pair two, a cafe. Pair three, nobody knows. Pair four, not again.
A set of five Specks is $79, which is $15.80 each. That is the whole argument.
One Speck · 2.0 m
13 / 14One of these is not paint
How small
Three millimetres. The tracker most people hang on their keys is 31.9 mm, more than ten times wider.
Speck, a sticker tracker and an AirTag, at real size.
Plate 13. One of these is not paint. In the manner of colour field painting, 1970s.Dive into this painting
Other trackers ask your things to carry them. A Speck becomes part of the thing.
Swipe the table sideways
| Against the others | Speck | AirTag | Sticker trackers | Glasses trackers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Size | 3 mm, under 0.05 g | 31.9 mm, 11.8 g | About 27 mm, 5 g | Clip sized |
| Goes on | Any surface, any fabric | Bags and keys, in a holder | Flat, larger objects | Glasses only |
| Held on by | Its own pad, pin or ring, all included | A separate holder | A sticky pad | A sticky pad or a clip |
| Jewellery | Yes | No | No | No |
| Phones | iPhone and Android | iPhone | Its own app and network | iPhone |
| Power | 3 to 6 months, swap the cell | About a year, swap the cell | Sealed, about 3 years | Recharge about monthly |
| Sold | Five to a set | One, or four | One or two | One |
14 / 14Sapphire, gold, steel
Inside
The dome is the aerial. The radio is two millimetres long. The whole design runs on a millionth of a watt, and a light cell under the dome pays some of it back.
Open the engineering pagePlate 14. Sapphire, gold, steel. The only painting of the thing itself. In the manner of photorealist oil, 1960s.Dive into this painting
The dome is the aerial
Printed on the inside of the sapphire, so the part you see is the part that talks to your phone.
A radio two millimetres long
A complete Bluetooth chip that wakes when the Speck moves and sleeps when it does not.
One microwatt
The whole design is held to a millionth of a watt, and a light cell under the dome pays some of it back.
09 answersBefore you ask
Fair questions
Speck is in development. These are the questions we would ask, answered the way we would want them answered.
How can something this small be a tracker?
The Bluetooth chip inside is about two millimetres across. The hard part is the cell and the antenna, and that is where our engineering goes. Speck is in development, and the figures on this page are the ones we are building to.
Will it mark my glasses or jewellery?
No. The pad sets onto the surface, not into it. A firm twist with the key in the box breaks the bond and the pad peels away. Each set comes with ten fresh pads.
What if one falls off?
Then it is a tracker lying on the floor. Ring it, pick it up and press it back on with a fresh pad. A cured bond is built to hold three kilograms on something that weighs a twentieth of a gram, so we expect that to be rare, and we will publish our pull tests.
Does it work with my phone?
Yes. One Speck works with iPhone and Android, and joins both Apple's and Google's finding networks, so the phones around a lost item can report it whichever kind they are.
What happens when the cell runs out?
The app warns you at 15%, weeks ahead. Twist the Speck open, drop in one of the spare cells from the box, twist it shut. It takes about half a minute and the Speck keeps its name.
Could someone use one to follow me?
Speck supports the unwanted tracker alerts built into iPhone and Android. If a Speck that is not yours travels with you, your phone tells you, and you can make it ring to find it.
Is there AI inside it?
The intelligence is in the app. Your phone learns where your things live and warns you when something is out of place. The Speck only has to say here I am.
Is it safe around children?
A pinned Speck locks onto its back and does not pull off. The cell is sealed inside the steel base. Like any small object it is not for children under three, and we are building the base to the safety rules for button cells.
Will it survive the wash?
Rain, sweat and a hand wash, yes. We are testing it in the washing machine and will say so plainly when it passes. Until then, unpin it first.
It was in the full stop the whole time.
A set of five
- Five Specks in your finish
- Five spare cells
- Pads, pins and loops
- The app, with no subscription
- Pay nothing until it ships
- Cancel whenever you like
Speck is in development. Figures are design targets and the price is provisional. Every painting was generated for Speck and none is a real museum work. The photographs are visualisations.
Back into the diveFair questionsHow it is builtBack to the top