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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START FROM WHAT IS THERE

Setting up the conditions. Beginning might require more than the blank page or empty stage. Start from what is there, which is not to say work with an idea conceived already in advance. Recognise what is no longer vital, where force or effectiveness has become atrophied or dulled through absence of action or lack of attention. Dispel the dry or hardened; the stale; not fresh, the vapid or the flat. Expel the lost-of-energy, what is now surfeit, overstrained or bored. Dis-association. Dis-tinction. Dis-tinguish. There is a decision; a split; a cut, a cleaving. Ordering, categorising — what to keep and what to let go? This with and this not. As preparing for a journey, which things to stay and which are to be left behind. As with the cut, a clearing, event of separation. Like empty brackets, an opening — un-closing, dis-closure. Clearing and emptying so something might show itself, become unconcealed. Release and anticipation — creating the conditions for the not-yet-arisen, the potential for something new. Dis-charging energy. To return to zero — to establish a new ground. Preparatory gestures, re-sharpening. Marking a new beginning, marked by readiness. Re-set so that one might begin once more.

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

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