OVERVIEW: Emma Cocker is a writer-artist and Associate Professor in Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University, UK. Her research enquiry unfolds at the threshold between writing/art, drawing on a background in fine art, visual culture, contemporary art theory and philosophy to explore experimental, performative and collaborative approaches for writing with, through and from artistic process and practice. Cocker often works in collaboration with other artists on durational projects, where the studio-gallery or site-specific context is approached as a live laboratory for shared artistic research. Whilst decidedly open-ended and process-based, these explorations might culminate in the generation of artists’ book-works and academic publications, alongside performance lectures and live events.
PUBLICATION: Cocker has published internationally in diverse contexts from contemporary art journals and academic publications to artistic book-works and multi-modal online expositions. Her writing and research has been published in Failure (2010); Stillness in a Mobile World (2010); Drawing a Hypothesis: Figures of Thought (2011); Hyperdrawing: Beyond the Lines of Contemporary Art (2012); On Not Knowing: How Artists Think (2013); The Creative Critic: Writing as/about Practice (2018), and Writing Choreography: Textualities of and beyond Dance (2024). She is co-editor of a Special Issue of the journal of Phenomenology & Practice on 'Practices of Phenomenological and Artistic Research' (2022); co-author of Live Coding: A User's Manual (2022), the first book-length academic publication on the burgeoning field of live coding (published in the Software Studies series by MIT); and co-author/co-editor of Choreo-graphic Figures: Deviations from the Line (2017). Cocker's creative prose has been published in two solo collections, The Yes of the No (2016), and How Do You Do? (2025). She has published numerous journal articles including in Performance Research; TEXTILE: Journal of Cloth and Culture; Journal of Digital Creativity, Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, Journal of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training as well as research expositions in the Journal of Artistic Research (JAR); RUUKKU: Studies in Artistic Research and VIS: Nordic Journal for Artistic Research. In 2019, her collaborative exposition 'Choreo-graphic Figures: Scoring Aesthetic Encounters' (with Nikolaus Gansterer and Mariella Greil) was awarded the Society of Artistic Research RC Prize for Best Exposition, and in 2024 she was awarded runner-up for the collaborative exposition, 'Textorium: Collaborative Writing/Reading in Public Space' (with Andrea Coyotzi Borja, Cordula Daus, Vidha Saumya and Lena Séraphin). Cocker has presented her research at international conferences throughout Europe, as well as in Japan, Canada and the USA, including invited key-note presentations at the International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC) 2020 and the Society of Artistic Research conference (2021).
RESEARCH PROJECTS: Cocker is co-founder of the international Society for Artistic Research Special Interest Group for Language-based Artistic Research. In 2019, she was an invited artistic researcher within the Research Pavilion, hosted by UniArts in the context of the Venice Biennale. She was a co-researcher on the PEEK-funded artistic research project 'Choreo-graphic Figures' ([FW-AR-283] 2014 - 2018); is currently a co-researcher on the KONE Foundation funded project 'transitory writing in no one's land' (2023 - 2025), and is an Advisor on the PEEK-funded project Simultaneous Arrivals ([AR 714-G] 2022 - 2025). She was an invited critical interlocutor on the AHRC Digital Transformations projects Live Notation: Transforming Matters of Performance (2013) and Weaving Codes/Coding Weaves (2014 - 2016), and a guest researcher on the PEEK-funded project, Contingent Agencies ([FW-AR 546] 2023 - 2025).
ACADEMIC/EMPLOYMENT: Cocker is currently Associate Professor in Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK, where she has worked since 2004. She is co-lead of the Artistic Research Group and co-lead of the Doctoral research seminar series DREAM (Doctoral Research Encounters with Artistic Methods). Cocker has extensive experience teaching and guest lecturing in various international contexts (including throughout Europe and also in Mexico), most recently as Visiting Professor at UniArts, Helsinki (2024-2025). Prior to working at NTU, Cocker taught at different HE and FE institutions, alongside working at Site Gallery, Sheffield, first as Photography Development Officer (1998 - 1999) responsible for the photographic darkrooms and related activities, and then as Education Development Manager (1999 -2005) leading on a diverse programme of events, symposia and projects, alongside co-editing the lecture-publication series Transmission: Speaking & Listening (Vol. 3, 4 and 5), in collaboration with Sharon Kivland, Jaspar Joseph Lester and Lesley Sanderson, Sheffield Hallam University.
PUBLICATION: Cocker has published internationally in diverse contexts from contemporary art journals and academic publications to artistic book-works and multi-modal online expositions. Her writing and research has been published in Failure (2010); Stillness in a Mobile World (2010); Drawing a Hypothesis: Figures of Thought (2011); Hyperdrawing: Beyond the Lines of Contemporary Art (2012); On Not Knowing: How Artists Think (2013); The Creative Critic: Writing as/about Practice (2018), and Writing Choreography: Textualities of and beyond Dance (2024). She is co-editor of a Special Issue of the journal of Phenomenology & Practice on 'Practices of Phenomenological and Artistic Research' (2022); co-author of Live Coding: A User's Manual (2022), the first book-length academic publication on the burgeoning field of live coding (published in the Software Studies series by MIT); and co-author/co-editor of Choreo-graphic Figures: Deviations from the Line (2017). Cocker's creative prose has been published in two solo collections, The Yes of the No (2016), and How Do You Do? (2025). She has published numerous journal articles including in Performance Research; TEXTILE: Journal of Cloth and Culture; Journal of Digital Creativity, Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, Journal of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training as well as research expositions in the Journal of Artistic Research (JAR); RUUKKU: Studies in Artistic Research and VIS: Nordic Journal for Artistic Research. In 2019, her collaborative exposition 'Choreo-graphic Figures: Scoring Aesthetic Encounters' (with Nikolaus Gansterer and Mariella Greil) was awarded the Society of Artistic Research RC Prize for Best Exposition, and in 2024 she was awarded runner-up for the collaborative exposition, 'Textorium: Collaborative Writing/Reading in Public Space' (with Andrea Coyotzi Borja, Cordula Daus, Vidha Saumya and Lena Séraphin). Cocker has presented her research at international conferences throughout Europe, as well as in Japan, Canada and the USA, including invited key-note presentations at the International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC) 2020 and the Society of Artistic Research conference (2021).
RESEARCH PROJECTS: Cocker is co-founder of the international Society for Artistic Research Special Interest Group for Language-based Artistic Research. In 2019, she was an invited artistic researcher within the Research Pavilion, hosted by UniArts in the context of the Venice Biennale. She was a co-researcher on the PEEK-funded artistic research project 'Choreo-graphic Figures' ([FW-AR-283] 2014 - 2018); is currently a co-researcher on the KONE Foundation funded project 'transitory writing in no one's land' (2023 - 2025), and is an Advisor on the PEEK-funded project Simultaneous Arrivals ([AR 714-G] 2022 - 2025). She was an invited critical interlocutor on the AHRC Digital Transformations projects Live Notation: Transforming Matters of Performance (2013) and Weaving Codes/Coding Weaves (2014 - 2016), and a guest researcher on the PEEK-funded project, Contingent Agencies ([FW-AR 546] 2023 - 2025).
ACADEMIC/EMPLOYMENT: Cocker is currently Associate Professor in Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK, where she has worked since 2004. She is co-lead of the Artistic Research Group and co-lead of the Doctoral research seminar series DREAM (Doctoral Research Encounters with Artistic Methods). Cocker has extensive experience teaching and guest lecturing in various international contexts (including throughout Europe and also in Mexico), most recently as Visiting Professor at UniArts, Helsinki (2024-2025). Prior to working at NTU, Cocker taught at different HE and FE institutions, alongside working at Site Gallery, Sheffield, first as Photography Development Officer (1998 - 1999) responsible for the photographic darkrooms and related activities, and then as Education Development Manager (1999 -2005) leading on a diverse programme of events, symposia and projects, alongside co-editing the lecture-publication series Transmission: Speaking & Listening (Vol. 3, 4 and 5), in collaboration with Sharon Kivland, Jaspar Joseph Lester and Lesley Sanderson, Sheffield Hallam University.