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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DO + UNDO

Penelope, wily weaver of Ancient myth, weaving by day and unweaving by night; unweaving and reweaving in act of quiet resistance, so as to thwart the terms of a situation from which there would seem to be no way out. The relentless repeat of again and again skips towards its affirmative variant, towards do and undo, from slavish adherence to the rule or routine towards a restless capacity for daily reimagining. The interminable chain of repetition switches; every stitch becomes a space for contemplating loopholes, those openings or apertures through which unwanted duty or obligation might yet be escaped, new lines of flight arise. Indeed, repetition does not always instill routine; through repeated action familiarity can soon buck back upon itself towards estrangement. Repeating can evacuate meaning from language, rendering it empty and absurd. Choose any word and say it aloud, over and over. How long before its sense collapses into only sound, its signification slips under waves of undulating rhythm? Or maybe opt to write the same word, time and time again. In time, the writing of a word drifts towards the drawing of a line; curve of letters spelt melt with pleasurable twist of the wrist, becoming serpentine. Language hinged between the event of reading and looking. Calligraphic: words borne more of hand, than mind. Yet mindful must the hand that inscribes such words remain, for it is easy to lose focus, skilful repetition dissipating into careless scrawl. Every word might need the same degree of attention then. Performed like a mantra. Ritual repetition: babble of incantation. Words spelled out to rouse, invoke, for calling up or forth. With each repetition, increase in emphasis or amplification, heightened sensitivity. Whilst repetition can homogenise, flattening and eroding detail, repeated engagement with a given subject can also sharpen one’s focus or attention, nurturing a more nuanced gaze. Yet, the eyes often see what they want to see. Given even minimal prompt, mind too strives swiftly to draw connecting lines, is quick to fill the gaps when comprehension stumbles. Recognition is often first determined by knowing what one is looking for in advance. Repeated-cognition: the event of seeing again something previously seen or encountered; repetition of the already known and named. It can be difficult to see that which falls beyond the limits of prior experience or knowledge, far easier to conceive the seeing of that which isn’t really there.

From Emma Cocker, The Yes of the No, (Sheffield: Site Gallery, 2016), p. 107. Revised extract of a text that was previously published as ‘Sampler of Samplers, Repeating Repeats, Repeats’ in Danica Maier, Grafting Propriety: From Stitch to the Drawn Line, (Black Dog, 2016).

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