This article was invited for the 'On Form' issue of Performance Research, edited by Dr Ric Allsopp. It considers patterns and structures as perceived by readers and viewers. Starting from an essay by Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), it links discourses of close reading with visual arts theory and film studies. The position of the reader towards a text is juxtaposed with questions of pattern and point of view. Contemporary poetic writing is examined visually, and aspects of visual production are considered syntactically. This research was further developed in a performance, 'from among the smocks …'. Initially presented at Dartington (November 2005), it used digital mediation and live action to present a movement between the textual and the visual, between word and image
