A short poem is written in forked syntax so that it may be read in a number of ways. The poem’s text is transliterated into braille. Each node of braille is the nub of a rivet. Touch is detected by sending small electrical currents through these nodes: the frequency is amplified by the body and returned back to system; the current is sent out one node, through the finger, and back into another.

As fingertips travel across the wall, a poem’s sound is generated. This sound-poem is a longer version of the text on the wall. The short poem indexes the long poem. The wall is felt and variations of the same poem are generated. (A poem is a collection of many potential other poems.)

The text for the Wall was composed using William Carlos Williams’ epic poem, ‘Paterson’ (itself a cut-up, of sorts) as a source text. Each word in the Wall appeared in ‘Paterson’. The poem is a playful response to Williams’ well-known poetic dictum no ideas but in things, which was often realised in acute imagery and visual metaphor. The language of this composition gestures at non-visual and non-imagistic thingliness.