what

1. A unit, a measure, an assignment of length. A definition of fixed bounds [known as a standard] that performs an act of calibration for the purpose of reference and referral.

2. A materialisation, an apparatus; an object that signifies. An instrument of given proportion [arbitrarily set] that defines a standardised sense of scale. A societal totem. A yardstick.

3. A communicable language, a knowledge system. A set of rules provided for practical convention: an everyday accord.

4. A connection between two points; a recognition of space in-between. An understanding that the distance spanned from the ‘here’ to the ‘there’ is comparable, quantifiable; calculable. A knowing of space [and self] through the determination of an unyielding metric.

5. A natural measure and an enduring proposition; an integer extracted from the physical scale of the Earth, divested from [although not evading entirely] man, court and country.

6. A compliance; a social contract. An instrument that facilitates measure by measuring against. A notion suspended by use and application. A construct that now constructs: we shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.

7. A masculine noun, a male assertion; a stallion (literally). An implicit possession of scientific output by a patriarchal structure. A dissemination of knowledge by a self-identified elite.

8. A walk, a counter-measure; a remeasuring for arts’ sake. A physical, emotional and mental gesture in search of the metre one step at a time.   

9. A feminine verb, a female action. An attempt to recover an implicit tactility, misremembered and overlooked – to know a metre as one knows oneself. An honouring of unseen and hidden labour. A physical connection, an embodied sense of time and place.