Non-standard Measures (2024)

In Non-standard Measures, members of The Observatory Project use blank tape measures to mark out metric and imperial units of length. In 2023 we visited public standard measures installed in Paris and London in the 18th century. Marking out by hand our own metres, yards, feet, and inches onto blank tape measures, we playfully push against notions of accuracy and standardisation—putting the metre to measure. Recording the street address of the public standard onto the tape, our measurements speak to local systems of measurement rather than any global standard.