LIMITS AS LEVERAGE
Limits not only establish the parameters of a given situation but can also become leverage against which to work. Introducing limits or constraints can keep a practice buoyant, prevent it from becoming stuck or bored. The impetus or force that initiates a process also has the capacity to destroy it. One’s actions can become jaded or staid in the absence of the decision that determines when to stop or change tack. Limits can be worked until they begin to yield, creating the conditions for conceiving that which exists beyond their bounds. To think beyond is to presuppose a line. The tighter the limit, the wilier one’s means for navigating a way around. Look out for unexpected loopholes. Stay vigilant to the fact that any limit is only as strong as its weakest point, is already full of holes. Through amplified attention, a given limit might be rendered porous. Observe the dual sense of pore — (as noun) a minute opening or perforation, or even literally a passage or a journey or a way through; or else (as verb) to gaze intently, with close and steady attention or perseverance. Notice the interwovenness of these two meanings, where the act of focusing or poring one’s concentration might increase the porosity of what is held in regard, as under scrutiny the edges of things soften and blur. Less through blunt refusal or through direct force, test limits with patience. Hold back, bide one’s time. Harness the power of knowing-when, of catching the limit off-guard. Accept limits only if they offer provocation, renegotiate them if they fail to create tension or have become dull. Consider the art of parkour — the traceur who in refusing to stay within the limits of what is considered normative, welcomes the obstacle that forces an arabesque about-turn mid-flight, the vertiginous somersault of a flow folded back over into eloquent coils or perilous freefall.
From Emma Cocker, How Do You Do? (Nottingham: Beam Editions, 2023)