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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EMPTY TO MAKE AVAILABLE

Meet the challenge of beginning, of taking that first step. Begin by clearing and emptying out. Not just an emptying of space but preparation also of oneself and one’s materials. Before performing — pre-forming. Notice the doing that precedes the doing; what must be done before play is begun. Sense of ordering but beyond making clean, more than operational. Clearing brings a quality of exorcism — exorcising as a means of letting go. Loosen the bonds of recognition and utility. Empty of pre-existing function and content, meaning and memory; of the histories; stories; associations of certain materials; of spaces, the self. Not only of visible things but also the invisible. Evacuate. Vacate. Vacancy as a precondition for availability. Empty to make available, un-occupy. Ridding of habits and hang-ups. Ritual process of purification — a practice of forgetting, of disassociation so as not to repeat the same. Clarification but not towards clarity of sense if this means only intellectual meaning or understanding. Bright the clarity that gleams with the luminosity of awareness. Clarify to make brilliant, for letting things shine — from the Italian brillare, to sparkle or to whirl.

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

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