The Thames reveals itself as a site where the “natural” has always been shaped by human control. This is deeply paradoxical because the Thames has never been truly natural, yet it is often romanticised as such today. The project investigates this paradox by observing and mapping the Thames, revealing it as a constantly shifting, living system rather than a static feature of geography. While engaging with the medium of mapping, its function shifts from a controlling, boundary-defining practice to a process of attentive listening, in which authorship moves away from the human and toward the river itself, revealing its own dynamic movements.

Along its banks, algae lines mark the shifting boundary between water and land, constantly redrawn by tides and the passage of time. These traces reveal that natural boundaries are dynamic and alive, rather than fixed. Again, mapping, traditionally a tool of human dominance and control, here becomes an act of observation, a way of listening to movement and change. From this reflection arises the idea for an object , a measuring device that documents the movement of the river through the drawing of algae-like lines. The algae lines serve as a reference, yet, rather than being formed by water and organisms, the lines are produced mechanically. As the flow turns the waterwheel, its rotation travels through the axis, the flexible coupling, the eccentric, and the connecting rod until it reaches the springy drawing arm. The pen responds to every subtle shift and vibration created by the river, tracing a line that expresses its changing rhythm. Over time, these lines accumulate into a pattern that mirrors the river’s changing flow.