Artistic Research Does #7 - 'Tactics for Not Knowing' by Emma Cocker

This research exposition is conceived in conjunction with the publication, Artistic Research Does #7 (2023), which presents a translation of Emma Cocker’s essay ‘Tactics for Not Knowing: Preparing for the Unexpected’, originally published in Elizabeth Fisher and Rebecca Fortnum, (eds.) On Not Knowing: How Artists Think, (Black Dog Publishing, 2013). See https://i2ads.up.pt/publicacoes/artistic-research-does-7/ In addition to the translation and re-publication of the original text, the revised version of ‘Tactics for Not Knowing’ in Artistic Research Does #7 offers two further interventions in the form of annotations. In one column of margin notes, Cocker shares additional reflections, referring to some of her more recent artistic research projects and collaborations that continue to resonate with the concerns of the original text. In parallel, a second column of margin notes comprises the titles of additional pieces of contiguous writing drawn from two collections of Cocker’s writing, The Yes of the No (2016) and How Do You Do? (2023). Within this online version these margin notes include hyperlinks that enable the reader to access these different thought-fragments of writing. Artistic Research Does is edited by Catarina Almeida, André Alves. Artistic Research Does is published by i2ADS – Institute of Research in Art, Design and Society is a R&D unit based at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (FBAUP), financed by the Portuguese agency Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).

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WITHOUT PROMISE OF REWARD

How indicates something happening, the unfolding of process. Process — an act of being carried out or carried on. Process can be conceived as a series of actions for producing change or development, directed towards some task or future target. Here, process etymologically draws on the Latin processus — a going forward, to advance, to progress, or else to proceed. Pro- meaning forward, forth, towards the front. Yet cede, from cedere, also means to yield, to go from. Pro-cede — to move forward then through yielding, letting go or by leaving behind. In this sense, process is not only determined by the end or destination. Process practised in-and-of-itself, undertaken in ways that are less goal-oriented, less target- or telos-driven. No longer just a means to an end. Process can be fulfilling without goal, rewarding without promise of reward or return on one’s investment.

From Emma Cocker, How Do You Do? (Nottingham: Beam Editions, 2023)

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