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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ACCENT THE WEAK BEAT

Improvise new relations between acceleration and deceleration. Under scrutiny, slow to standstill, then quickly, switch in flight to speed. Consider the dodge tactics of the hunted — the diversions of their lurch and surge, their deviation through false moves. Ruse — a trick practised to evade capture, from the French ruser, to retreat, or Latin recūsāre, to refuse, oppose. However, rather than refusing speed, resist by accelerating the pulse of action until it takes on the indeterminacy of a drone. Or alternatively, an extreme reduction in pulse rate might disconnect the causal relation between action and its effects. Syncopate one’s moves. Cause breaks in rhythm. Accent the weak beat above the strong. Experiment, yet caution against the contrivance that leads to liveliness lost, diminished sense of energy or vitality. Here, resistance can be deceptive, inadvertently deadening the true living of existence, the veracity of one’s life. There is a risk that over time, fixation on taking a stand against might eclipse one’s belief in what to stand for.

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

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