Robert KocikRobert Kocik was born in 1954, in Austin, Minnesota. He is a writer, prosodist, builder, artist, caregiver and economic justice activist. From 1975-80 Kocik worked with the Center for Archaic Studies in Franconia, NH. He attended the New College of Clifornia Poetics Program from 1980-83. In 1985 he moved to France where he worked as a builder and translator. From 1990-95 he co-directed (with choreographer Daria Faïn) the arts and trades association Trigon. In 1994-95 he studied wood engineering at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. In 1996, he moved to Brooklyn where he founded the Bureau of Material Behaviors, a design/build business and materials research workshop. Since 1985, Japanese and French woodworking traditions have been the mainstay of his livelihood.
His architectural works focus on missing services, functions and furnishings that meet critical social needs. His cross-disciplinary writings move through the hard, soft and sore sciences to comprise a field called 'Supple Science.' In 2006, Faïn and Kocik co- founded the 'Prosodic Body, ' an experiential, exacting exploration of the sonic, connotative and somatosensory aspects of language. In 2008, the Commons Choir (the performative branch of the Prosodic Body) was launched. Working from librettos that combine prosody research with socioeconomic concerns, the choir performs investigative musicals in various settings, to entertain, educate and enlighten.
Kocik's publications include AUKSO (gain) (Object, 1995), Overcoming Fitness (Exit 18/Autonomedia, 2001), RHRURBARB (Field Books/Periplum Editions, 2007), All Peoples Calendar (Prosodic Body, 2009), E-V-E-R-Y-O- N-E (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2012), and SUPPLE SCIENCE: A ROBERT KOCIK PRIMER (ON Contemporary Practice, 2014). Read More Read Less
