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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LOOKING FOR LOOPHOLES

Permissions are often inscribed through negative clause, where the body is steered away from certain actions, towards a set menu of increasingly limited choice. Conventions of a space form the idiomatic round hole, the social hoops through which the individual must attempt to jump. Yet, the dimensions of conformity’s hoop are rarely consistent. Every situation sets its own parameters, endlessly re-inscribing its perimeter edge. These precarious terms ensure that a body is kept on its toes, since the social standards within which it must perform are re-negotiated by the hour, ever changing. Rather than waiting for the limit or rule to be modified at the whim of some external power, the individual might attempt to intervene in advance. Under pressure, limits can be rendered porous. The line that differentiates one state or space from another can be made to move or give. The division between private and public space becomes blurred through choice actions and interventions. Micro-performances can be staged in the gaps between properties, in the alleyways of possibility between territorialised zones. Boundary walls offer points of pressure against which to vault and somersault, jump and balance. The threshold between here and there can be dwelt in and upon, not just swiftly passaged through. There are intervals of the city where the rules of behaviour have not yet been fully declared, where they still remain in flux. Between the law of one space and another, a moment of lawlessness exists where a body might briefly escape the authority of either side of the line. Act swiftly, for any breach of control is rarely lasting, is far and few between. Unruly spaces are routinely brought back under rule, or else soon governed by the law of a fear that is equally difficult to counter. Act swiftly but with intent, for whilst the opportunist recognises the opening within every situation encountered, with haste and not intention true Kairos often goes to waste. Begin by acting against impulse, for impulse is an illusory sense of liberation, nothing but the involuntary performance of an action or reaction already known, the subconscious repetition of what already is.

From Emma Cocker, The Yes of the No, (Sheffield: Site Gallery, 2016)

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