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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BIDE ONE’S TIME

Artistic practice does not always evolve through linear progression but can advance more like the tide — ebbing and flowing, coming and going, edging back and forth. Tides turn by the rhythm of the lunar day, whose duration is longer than a day set by the position of the sun. Moon time lags against the solar day. The artist’s time is not that of the clock — it is elastic and discontinuous. In the studio, time loops and lapses, stretches and contracts. Tense loses its tension — the edges of past, of present and future, can be felt to seep and fray. Unhurried by the external force of acceleration or pressure, a practice conducts its own rhythms, at times calling for slowness, on occasion for the urgency of speed. An exploration can span decades or a lifetime. Another might arise and cease within an hour or a day. Let one’s motive be neither with clear aim nor strictly aimless, one’s direction not fixed in advance nor predetermined by custom or convention. Rather sojourn or dwell, reside and tarry. In search of the unforeseeable, faith is placed in what unfolds. Abide, bide one’s time, becoming open to what betides. Betide — to happen, what comes to pass. The will to be willing rather than to will, to be prepared to be carried by the tide. Being open to happenstance is not just a case of going with the flow, the path of passivity or of least resistance. Effort is required to suspend one’s own habits and expectations, to remain receptive to the unplanned for, embracing of surprise.

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

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