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THE OBJECT:PARADISE
MANIFESTO


OBJECT:PARADISE aims to highlight the subjective experience of poetry in an objective, shared moment of time and space.

We do this by taking the spotlight off the ‘poet’ and placing it rather on the context of shared time & space where the language exists--and thus happens.

This approach alleviates the pretensions often associated with the connotation of “poetry reading” where both readers and audience members may be burdened with social perceptions of ‘poetry’, ‘poems’, and ‘poets’. 

We embrace the surrounding noise—whether visual, auditory, or physical—and plan simultaneous actions during readings, so that unplanned actions (real disruptions) are not seen as distractions, but as integral parts of our subjective experiences.

Our objective is that when people leave our curated events, they become more attuned to their surroundings—actively and inductively engaging with the poetics of the natural world, asking themselves, "Is this a poetry reading?"


The Manifesto was written by Tyko Say, Sandra Pasławska, Jaromir Lelek, and Roksan Mandel in Žižkov, Prague, Czech Republic 2020. Our founding document (below) is composed of twenty mantras which inform all actions, projects, and curations by the OBJECT:PARADISE collective.

The role of collective members is to ensure that all artifacts from OBJECT:PARADISE prescribe to the Manifesto in part or in whole.

The collective is currently managed by Tyko Say, Sandra Pasławska, and Jaromír Lelek.


Tyko Say, Sandra Pasławska, and Jaromír Lelek scouting venues for OBJECT:PARADISE’s first international language happening. Krakow, Poland, 2022. Photo by Hunter Andrews.
Pictured: Tyko Say, Sandra Pasławska, and Jaromír Lelek scouting venues for OBJECT:PARADISE’s first international language happening. Krakow, Poland, 2022.
Photo by Hunter Andrews.


Read our founding document below

The only thing that is constant is change; a single moment can never be replicated again. OBJECT:PARADISE applies this notion to language to celebrate the innate uniqueness of utterances happening in a single time and space-specific context.

Because language is always happening for the first time, we aim to release it from its intention and foster a space where it can exist as its implication. To do this, we encourage the language user—producer and receiver, performer and audience—to embrace miscommunication to observe how connotative forces shape shared experience and understanding of the languages before them.

When we erase the restraints of denotation, the superego of language, we find that we cannot produce poetry, but only receive it as it happens for the first time before us in the objective moment.


Sandra Pasławska, OBJECT:PARADISE

What is the objective moment?

Along with sharing a moment in time, comes the space where that time happens. It is often that at poetry readings there is a prescriptive space--meaning that the attendees of the event have prescriptive roles they must fulfill in order for the reading to achieve its intention: the poet stands before an audience (often in a turtleneck), and the audience listens (often with their hands crossed on their knee). If this act is not fulfilled, then one of two reasons are likely given:

  1. The audience does not understand the language of the poet; or
  2. The poet does not understand the language of the audience.

In both incidents, language is the enemy. This raises the core question, “is there a perfect poetic language, a language which embodies the correct amount of ambiguity and directness to be deemed poetic verse?”, but the answer is simple if we view language from a social perspective: language is not biological; or from the physics perspective: language is always changing. There is no one best word nor best order of the best words, only social perception, and trends that make language knowable or hip.

So if language can’t be objectively qualified as good or bad, then what would make it poetic in the first place? What would send chills down the spine and raise the hairs of our moles? We will argue that meaning is derived from context: time and space. This is clear when we think about our language choices; why is it that we can read the same poem at both a wedding and a funeral? Did the speaker really see two paths diverged in a wood? And what does that choice mean when taking a hand in marriage versus a hand in the casket?

It is only evident that because language relies on context to give it meaning, then poetry must as well. At poetry performances, the attendee share only one thing: that moment, which constitutes time, space, and the actions before them. This time and space-specific context creates new forces on what the language once was, and in turn, forces intended denotation into implicated connotation. Language then begins to happen—it exists in the moment—and is always new if we accept, understand, and explore the pragmatics of the utterances before us.
Photo of Tyko Say from Tunnel Vision(s) by Julie Orlova, OBJECT:PARADISE

How do we celebrate a language happening?


To celebrate a language happening is to open up our senses to everything occurring in the objective moment: sound, action, language, and physical space. Again, the poetry reading at the wedding and at the funeral taste different.

With some orchestrated performances of sound, action, and language, unorchestrated happenings begin to be highlighted--the man spilling an entire pint on his KROTCH: is that part of the performance? Of course it is. It must be; it has to be.

It is when everyone who is part of the objective moment begins to ask themselves these questions we can see a true rejection of the “poet” providing meaning, but the moment itself and all of its chaos providing meaning. It is when this happens, we know we have provided a context for the subjective world to be experienced in the objective moment.



︎Manifesto Mantras︎


    1. OBJECT:PARADISE IS THE INDUCTIVE SEDUCTION OF THE OBJECTIVE MOMENT


    2. USE THE LANGUAGE THAT THE PERFORMER AND AUDIENCE CREATE IN THAT MOMENT


    3. CONTEXT IS COTEXT


    4. MEDIATE THE THOUGHT AND THE BEAT


    5. EVERYTHING IS PART OF THE PERFORMANCE


    6. THE AUDIENCE IS THE POET


    7. DETHRONE, THEN DEMOTE THE 

      POET WHO CAME KNOWING


    8. ELIMINATE THE EGO


    9. DEPLATFORM THE STAGE 


    10. ORCHESTRATE THE CHAOS


    11. LANGUAGE EXISTS ONLY IN A SINGLE MOMENT, THAT MOMENT


    12. DOWN WITH DENOTATION


    13. INTERACT THE REACTION


    14. CELEBRATE THE PARTY THAT LANGUAGE IS


    15. THE BEST WORDS IN THE BEST ORDER DOES NOT EXIST


    16. LET ALL PLANS GO WRONG


    17. DEMONETIZE LANGUAGE


    18. DEDOOM THE WRONG NOTES


    19. EMBRACE MISCOMMUNICATION


    20. PROMOTE THE CONTEXT FOR THE SUBJECTIVE WORLD TO BE EXPERIENCED IN THE OBJECTIVE MOMENT

OBJECT:PARADISE Manifesto, Manifesto text, object paradise. OBJECT:PARADISE IS THE INDUCTIVE SEDUCTION OF THE OBJECTIVE MOMENTUSE THE LANGUAGE THAT THE PERFORMER AND AUDIENCE CREATE IN THAT MOMENT CONTEXT IS COTEXT MEDIATE THE THOUGHT AND THE BEATEVERYTHING IS PART OF THE PERFORMANCE THE AUDIENCE IS THE POET DETHRONE, THEN DEMOTE THE POET WHO CAME KNOWING ELIMINATE THE EGO DEPLATFORM THE STAGE  ORCHESTRATE THE CHAOS LANGUAGE EXISTS ONLY IN A SINGLE MOMENT, THAT MOMENT DOWN WITH DENOTATION INTERACT THE REACTIONCELEBRATE THE PARTY THAT LANGUAGE IS THE BEST WORDS IN THE BEST ORDER DOES NOT EXISTLET ALL PLANS GO WRONGDEMONETIZE LANGUAGE DEDOOM THE WRONG NOTESEMBRACE MISCOMMUNICATIONPROMOTE THE CONTEXT FOR THE SUBJECTIVE WORLD TO BE EXPERIENCED IN THE OBJECTIVE MOMENT

The OBJECT:PARADISE Manifesto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Who we are


OBJECT:PARADISE is a performance and poetics collective that was founded in 2018 in Prague, Czech Republic by writers Tyko Say and Jeff Milton. The original concept was simple and remains our core principle today: let’s make the public poetry reading an accessible experience by making poetry more than a presentation of language by poets and for poets.

We don’t believe in a poetic language nor the best words in the best order, but rather believe that poetry is a procedural text that is subjected to the context in which it exists and the people who experience it. We want to deconstruct the classism and prejudice inherent in “good” language versus “bad” language use and, instead, celebrate the moment that language exists in.

In 2018, OBJECT:PARADISE held its first event, Poetry of Sound, at the Czech Inn in Prague, Czech Republic. The happening featured 8 readers, 1 improv musician, and a video projection of a woman giving birth. And, as the attendees of the event pieced together each element, the space itself became the poem--featuring words, sound, movement, and visuals.

We became obsessed with this feeling: poetry could be a happening, a party, a celebration--and everyone was invited to bring their own contributions and interpretations.

We found that with some orchestrated chaos and curation that distractions and disruptions could be seen also as part of the performance, alleviating
pretensions of “poetry” “poet” and “poem” for both the performers and attendees of our events. 


Since its creation, we have curated and directed various performances, installations, and multi-media projects in light of our Manifesto, generating a strong following of community members who seek to engage with a poetics that’s a contextually-dependent, interdisciplinary celebration.

The collective is currently managed by Tyko Say, Sandra Pasławska, and Jaromír Lelek.



Pictured: Tyko Say, Sandra Pasławska, and Jaromír Lelek scouting venues for OBJECT:PARADISE’s first international language happening. Krakow, Poland, 2022. Photo by Hunter Andrews.

︎ News 
[last updated August 26, 2024]


2024



2023



  • OBJECT:PRAHA IV premieres at Art Quarter in Budapest, Hungary (December 2023).
  • OBJECT:PRAHA IV premieres at BEJÁ VU (The Mark Divo Institute) in Beja, Portugal (November 2023).
  • OBJECT:PRAHA IV premieres at Hopscotch Reading room in Berlin (November 2023).
  • Tyko Say discusses contextual poetics and OBJECT:PARADISE with Vít Bohal of 3/4 Magazine (November 2023).
  • Select OBJECT:PARADISE curations are presented in the online curation The Outsiders as part of TheWrongBiennale (November 2023).
  • OBJECT:PRAHA IV Performance, Deformance, Reformance premieres at Prague Microfestival (October 2023).
  • Collages of KROTCH and media are used in the scenography of Prague Microfestival MicroLabs (September 2023).
  • OBJECT:PARADISE hosts its eight language happening, a three-day festival--Performance, Deformance, Reformance--across Czechia and Poland, featuring a curation of over fifty performances (August 2023).
  • OBJECT:PRAHA III The Manifesto is screened at Hardcœur Festival in Soucy, France (August 2023).
  • Excerpts of KROTCH Magazine are exhibited at Vangaurdia Network Party, curated by Jo Blin &
    Lucie Alalu (August 2023).
  • KROTCH Magazine celebrates 1-year of print with a special issue on OBJECT:PARADISE’s upcoming event: Performance, Deformance, Reformance (June 2023).
  • Warm Braník plays a concert at U Habásků, Prague (May 2022).
  • OBJECT:PARADISE is awarded a grant for their upcoming festival Performance, Deformance, Reformance from the VisegradFund (April 2023).
  • Chairman Tyko Say is interviewed by City Life Magazine (iDnes) about the Prague creative community (April 2023).


2022




2021




2020


  • The OBJECT:PARADISE Manifesto is written (2020).
  • OBJECT:PARADISE registers as a non-profit organization with four members: Tyko Say, Sandra Pasławska, Jaromír Lelek, and Roksan Mandel (2020).
  • OBJECT:PRAHA premieres at Prague Microfestival XIV (November 2020).
  • OBJECT:SUNSET, a live-streamed VHS readings and piano performance on a Prague Rooftop is held (August 2020)
  • OBJECT:PARADISE is presented at Gathering of the Clans: a presentation of contemporary literary groups in Prague (July 2022).
  • OBJECT:PARADISE hosts its fith event, Tunnel Vision(s) (July 2020). 
  • At The Corner to the Right is filmed (July 2020).
  • The interview series OBJECT:VAULT begins with its first episode of Jaromír Lelek (June 2020).


2019




2018


  • OBJECT:PARADISE’s first event, Poetry of Sound, is held at the Czech Inn (November 2018).
  • Tyko Say and Jeff Milton form OBJECT:PARADISE (October 2018).

The OBJECT:PARADISE collective is currently governed by three members ︎

Founder & Director of Poetics and Media
Tyko Say

Director of Performance
Sandra Pasławska

Director of Poetics & Czech Media
Jaromír Lelek  





/ OBJECT:PARADISE IS THE INDUCTIVE SEDUCTION OF THE OBJECTIVE MOMENT / USE THE LANGUAGE THAT THE PERFORMER AND AUDIENCE CREATE IN THAT MOMENT / CONTEXT IS COTEXT / EVERYTHING IS PART OF THE PERFORMANCE / THE AUDIENCE IS THE POET / DETHRONE, THEN DEMOTE THE POET WHO CAME KNOWING / ELIMINATE THE EGO / DEPLATFORM THE STAGE / ORCHESTRATE THE CHAOS / LANGUAGE EXISTS ONLY IN A SINGLE MOMENT, THAT MOMENT /  DOWN WITH DENOTATION /  CELEBRATE THE PARTY THAT LANGUAGE IS / THE BEST WORDS IN THE BEST ORDER DOES NOT EXIST / LET ALL PLANS GO WRONG / DEMONETIZE LANGUAGE / EMBRACE MISCOMMUNICATION /  PROMOTE THE CONTEXT FOR THE SUBJECTIVE WORLD TO BE EXPERIENCED IN THE OBJECTIVE MOMENT