In the article Diffracting Diffraction: Cutting Together-Apart, Karen Barad describes the concept of re-turning. To re-turn may think of the past as back then, back when but to re-turn is the motion of turning over and over again.

The hyphen makes all the difference.

Barad likens re-turning to the movement of worms making compost. The worms ingest the soil as they tunnel through and burrow within it. The soil is aerated as the worms breathe new life into the organic matter. This is an unending process. There is no finale to re-turning.

Slow Glass explores the shifting boundaries of time within a place and (dis)orientates memory. Memory marks a return as it is often about wanting to go backwards, towards a snapshot that is suspended, undistorted, in the past. When I began Slow Glass I was hesitant about falling accidentally into nostalgic reflections. The motion of re-turning gave words to my approach to memory and the past. To re-turn is to enfold memories and the past within the continuous becoming of the present.

Re-turning isn’t limited to memory, but what we have picked up along the way - stories and conversations, research and happenstance discoveries. All that we have gathered, sedimenting on the now.

Let her weave her story within their lives. And while she weaves, let her whip, spur, and set the on fire. Thus making them sing again. Very softly a-new again. (1)

_____________________________________________

1. Quotation: Trinh Minh-ha in Karen Barad, Diffracting Diffraction: Cutting Together-Apart, Parallax, 20:3, 2014, p.183