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Having read some of Hertzian Tales by Professor Anthony Dunne; my attention was drawn to the way in which we (as users) regard information and data. Especially in the case of data storage devices such as the iPod, Compact Disk, USB flash drives, internal/external hard drives.

Data that is used and relied upon everyday has become so far removed from the physical, that being able to store 'x' amount of information is simply a nebulous number. We are not able to think of this information in the same way that we do a stack of paper, or a cabinet full of files.
We therefore do not regard it in the same way, investing in the idea of portability, convenience and self-containment of data storage.

To explore the ways in which digital information can become tangible and force users to handle the data differently, existing storage devices are transformed from static, physical objects into variable and dynamic forms.

These articles materially expand and contract depending on their relative storage capacity volumes. For example if a USB flash drive was empty (apart from its default operational files), then the device would remain at its originally manufactured size. However, when the drive begins to fill or when it has reached its limit, then the outer 'skin' or casing of the object will have expanded relatively to its former size.

This renders the very nature of the equipments primary function as data storage to an extent useless. Each piece of technology would still store and transfer data in the same way, however it now has no claims for convenience or compactness.

This would require the user to think about the information in a different way, having to compensate for size and/or weight of a full MP3 player for example.

Would the person become a potential target by petty thief's if it were visibly apparent how much data they had on them?

Does all data have a certain value?