I’m working towards developing a measure: a method of assessing progression and  a way of recording the results of research over a period of time. I began today by drawing some simple forms — a square, a circle, and an unusual shape. I repeat the gesture of tracing over the same marks hundreds of times. Repetition is comforting. I mark the page, I mark the mark and the page, I move slowly at first, calculating the motion. I don’t have perfect control. I make marks over marks, almost always diverging from the previous path …the desire to trace and the desire to evade. There is a tension in the mark as I search for new territory, unmarked territory. The shapes seem to drift,  if I continue they will leave the paper. Speed leads to simplicity. Fluidity.

I began by making a straight line from left to right using a soft lead pencil. Fast. Immediate. I’m repeating the gesture over and over, bringing together two surfaces. I hear the sound of the pencil drag along and  fall off the edge of the paper. I think, patchiness, resistance. Muscles. Fibre. The more lines…conductance. Mobility. Plasticity. Variability is inevitable. Translation. This is yet another beginning.