In his book The Invention of Rivers¹, architect and planner Dilip da Cuhna argues that the separation of land from water on the Earth's surface may be considered 'one of the most fundamental and enduring acts in the understanding and design of human habitation'.1 The river, as an entity that flows within two static lines in the popular imagination, is far from a naturally occurring phenomenon, but rather 'one of the first acts of design', formed following extensive draining and reshaping of the river's former floodplain, so as to maximise profitable space for industrial undertakings at its man-made edge. Such undertakings have come at the expense of vast areas of low-lying wetlands which once formed the margins of rivers, supporting a remarkable variety of ecologies dependent on their high levels of nutrients and shallow waters.

Drawing from Da Cuhna's observations, the project takes as its case study the southernmost section of the River Lea in Stratford, where historic desires to maximise land for human habitation on the edge of London has involved significant redistribution of surface water and the aquatic ecologies it contains. The project interrogates the drawing of a line between land and water, between what is dry and what is wet, and the subsequent eradication of the wetland, which has resulted in significant yet disregarded ecological consequences on transitional habitats which no longer have a place within the human-enforced wet-dry binary.

2 Cameras, 10 cm Apart Visual media-based recording and engagement with the river's edge has historically been through the cartographic map. This method adopts a top-down, disembodied viewpoint favouring observing the world from above and effectively rendering life beneath the water's surface imperceptible. Drawing on standardised data collection methodologies commonly used by scientists, the project works with the linear transect as a methodology to observe the hard boundary of the River Lea, essentially using a line to observe another line.

Along this transect, strategically positioned at specific points, two Go-Pro cameras, spaced 10cm apart, are set up on either side. One camera captures a downward view of the ground at the river's edge, while the other looks upward from below the water's surface.

Presented side by side, these two static-shot perspectives from a single location, facilitated by disembodied cameras, draw renewed attention to the line separating land from water. This juxtaposition makes apparent what this imposed border has either enabled or disabled for life.

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