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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TOLERANCE AND RESISTANCE

Towards the experimental — experiment, from ex- ‘out of’ and peritus ‘experienced’, experiri ‘to try, test’; or else from esperment with its association of practical knowledge, of cunning or even of a magic spell. Experiential know-how based on the risk of living and the felt event. Knowing born of trial and error; the testing of innumerable versions, of manifold iterations and attempts. To get to grips with. Enquiry into material affordances and inclinations, a material’s tolerance and resistance. To get a handle on. Handle — to hold in the hands, to feel or deal with. Quality of a material perceived by touch of texture, surface friction and flexibility, density and weight. Experiment along the threshold between a material’s capacity (what it can receive or hold, perform or withstand) and its capability (its undeveloped potential or power). What does it do — what are its habits and tendencies? How could it become more — how might the material want to evolve?

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

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