Tyko is an editor of KROTCH Magazine, the co-author of the OBJECT:PARADISE Manifesto, and is an active member in the Prague literary community.

His latest work, Pigeons at Breakfast, was published in April 2025. He is currently working on his first full-length collection of writing that is due to be released by the end of 2025.



He has discussed his writing and approach in various outlets:


Current projects



Past projects



2025


Seen in


KROTCH MAG. 

 

KROTCH Magazine is a monthly attempt to share the O:P Manifesto in written form. In each issue, readers can find texts that expose the healthy and unhealthy indecencies within Prague and the microcosm of the art world that it represents.


Since its inception in June 2022, KROTCH Mag has been our monthly endeavor to fold the O:P Manifesto into a pocketable 16-page zine of community-based (f)art, mirroring the vibrant underbelly of Prague's art scene.




KROTCH Mag was born in a smoking-only bar in Prague’s neighborhood of lower Žižkov when a muž from the First Republic bartered us 50kč for the latest copy of Londýn volá, a photo-copied 2-page zine that he distributes en mass by hand.

We learned that this tradition, samizdat, was a method of distributing texts that would be otherwise banned by the state, a movement that flourished throughout the Eastern Bloc under the oppressive regimes of the communist era.



And, like that, with a nod to the samizdat spirit and with the effort to reach our community, KROTCH was born as a tangible, print-only rag that features anonymous voices from our community, showcasing a monthly collection of stories, reports, shouts, murmurs, and razz available at select locations and thru dealers across Prague for less than the price of a beer: 50kč.

Common themes include: (f)art criticism, rants on identity poetics, romantic opportunities, events to take yr new romantics, bad sex advice, good financial advice, and other introspections on Prague & the microcosm of the art world that is (mis)represents.

But why anonymous? Anonymous because we don’t want writers to think about readers. Anonymous because we don’t want readers to think about writers. Anonymous because we explore the world through our own eyes, reaching out through our own initiative--and that’s the magic that OBJECT:PARADISE believes in.




We got so damn obsessed with this idea of KROTCH being a tangible artifact of, and for, our community that we regularly hold zine workshops where we meet to sip, glue, stick, and snip old magazines to run them through heavy typewriters with whatever is on our minds. These gatherings are incubators for the diverse voices that populate KROTCH, reinforcing our dedication to grassroots creativity and collective resilience.




Each issue is crafted entirely by hand, using minimal digital tools, to give our readers something that’s been tangible at each stage of production. Because when KROTCH magazine gets soaked in beer, that’s all you get--some things in life just aren’t like that anymore.



In essence, KROTCH Magazine is more than a publication; it's our commitment to sharing the O:P Manifesto through unfiltered expression that lives and breathes in our community. It embodies our belief in the power of a contextually-based poetics that needs only the immediate moment and immediate eyes to grant its existence and value.

*****

We invite you to join us in this ongoing exploration of the poetics of localization and curation in the age of global mass media. Join us for a workshop or, if you live in Prague, send us the absolute worst thing you’ve ever written!

Each issue is only 50kč and is available exclusively in print. Current distribution points are at the Globe Bookstore in Nové Mesto, Žižkovšiška and Místečko Gallery in Žižkov.





KROTCH MAG. Issue 19 Out Now!





KROTCH MAG from lower Žižkov printed on March 2nd 2024 in an upstairs bedroom adjacent a bathroom with the door handle ripped off. KROCH RAG birthed from wet carpet and a busted typewriter.


Inside joke folk sent us (un)solicited text regarding, but not limited to, sex, joy, community, and all of those together. We folded em' together into 16 pages of NON. sock it & pocket it.

FOLD THIS DISCOUNT HAND-ME-DOWN-IN (your pocket) and walk thru town, leanin' up gainst walls and shit. Smell of piss. KROTCH MAG-- ya' read this trash hump?



We are pleased to feature in this issue:

Tylko Sag
Jerry Walnut
Shank Swonk
Stefan Fiedler
Michael J Rowland
Celine Jafarova
Mariya shatova

THANKS GUYS.

KROTCH Mag is available exclusively in print (besides this archived kopy) and is available only in select locations in lower Žižkov, PRAHAHAHAHAH Czech Republic. Buy it, fold it, sold it. Help us pay for a new printer by giving us one dollar.

Get yrslf in a K-HOLE and pick up the latest kopy of Rozkrok from your local dealer and/or The Globe Bookstore, Žižkovšiška, and Místečko Gallery.

Each issue is 50kč and can be used for multiple purposes (rug, toilet paper, beer coaster, hat, etc. et. al.) Want to supply KROTCH at your establishment? Call the ministry of culture.



Since June 2022, KROTCH Magazine has featured works from...


Alice Derrier (Madame Jidlo), Ásgeir H Ingólfsson, Celine Jafarova, Chuck Boris Norris, Christopher Crawford, David Hilbert, Frank Hernandez, Hanah Slaninová, Hunter Andrews, Jan Černý, Jaromír Lelek, Jo Blin, Juliano Alfredo, Ken Nash, Leap Lembo, Lomikar, Lorenzo Pol, Mariya Shatová, Madame Jidlo (Alice Derrier), Michael Rowland, Nassim Bouhoun, Palencar, Phillip O'neil, R.G. Vašíček, Rod Last, Rory Hinchey, Sandra Pasławska, Sara Wagenová, Sarah Belejová, Sasha Rose, Scott Nixon, Stefan Fiedler, Tomáš Martínek, Tomáš Straka, Tyko Say, Ugljesa Janjic, Vít Bohal, and Zuzana Wrona among others.




Archived Issues 






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OBJECT:PARADISE 



OBJECT:PARADISE (O:P) is a performance and poetics collective based in Prague, Czech Republic, formed by writers Tyko Say and Jeff Milton in 2018. The non-profit collective produces anti-poetry happenings, installations, and other multi-media works regarding their manifesto which calls to make poetry readings more dynamic, interdisciplinary, and contextually-dependent, in the name of a language happening. (Wikipedia)

Official collective website: www.objectparadise.com



O:P doesn’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.


About the O:P Manifesto


O:P 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.



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.


The Manifesto


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.




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.



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




News

 
[last updated November 14th, 2025]



2025




2024


Read the full report of our 2024 year-in-review here



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 Magazine 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).

Piegons at Breakfast


Pigeons at Breakfast (2025) is a collection of haiku written by Tyko Say and Jaromír Lelek throughout 2020-2022 where the two met throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to write. 



The book features 100 haiku that present a day in the life of a pigeon with accompanying drawings by Roksan Mandel and Hunter Andrews. 

The collection was published by The Word Addict on May 9th, 2025 at the launch event which featurd performances by Warm Braník and Service Elevator.





The Introduction:



We were two pigeons at breakfast
looking for our next fix, our next
gust of wind to blow us on but never
by. It was June, October, April, in
that exact order. And from our
chests we rubbed baguette, covered
in mustard, beating our bird hearts
with the hardhats and school kids
right there with them.

We were all there once, face down in
a puddle made just for us and
quickly if only briefly catching
the glimpse of the sky above us
while we thought about a warm
croissant.

What you’re holding is a day in our
pigeon lives. Written down around
about and at breakfast, lunch, and
dinner in an attempt to immortalize
lives in language in three lines.

It was August, July, November and
always Thursday. Braník in our
talons and a rollie under the wing.
We couldn’t fly but we could tell you
what the view was from there--had
already been there, had brunch
there, made love there, smoked that
and chanted “this city owes us its
balconies, its storm sewers, its
shoulders to shit on.”
We sat as any do observing the world
before you: on the square in chairs,

from a windowsill with no window,
under lamplight with still life,
and after the late night changed
his gown, went to bed, and left its
pigeon crumbs out for us who
plucked picked and digested them
into a secret and now public bird
shit.

Listen to the street-wise pigeons
pigeons speaking haikus
under their beaks.

Talked truth with Tyk
high up on the hills of wine
jazz


Wednesday of essence
spaghetti & Jaromir
sitting in chair




Online Viewing


Measuring Mismatches in What EFL Teachers Say and What Their Students Hear

MA Thesis – University of Sussex (2017)


This research explores a subtle but important question in language education: When teachers speak, do students always hear what’s intended?



Through mixed-methods research in communicative EFL classrooms, Tyko investigates how small differences between a teacher’s intended meaning and a student’s interpretation can create misunderstandings — and sometimes lead to complete communication breakdowns.

Using Sinclair & Coulthard’s Discourse Analysis model, combined with Speech Act Theory and Grice’s Conversational Maxims, Tyko analysed authentic classroom interactions, then asked both teachers and students to reflect on those moments through stimulated recalls. 

The study revealed that even in monolingual English-medium classrooms, mismatches can arise in both the instructional and conversational layers of discourse. However, creating models which predict these miscommunicates neglect the importance of intralanguages which are formed within the classroom.

Key findings:
  • Misunderstandings often begin with tiny “low-level” mismatches — a single word or phrase interpreted differently than intended.

  • These mismatches may go unnoticed, turning into ongoing miscommunication.

  • Teacher awareness of how students interpret feedback is essential — the “intended lesson” isn’t always the “received lesson.”

  • Simple, targeted changes in interaction style can reduce misunderstanding and strengthen communicative flow.

Why it matters:
Language classrooms aren’t just about grammar and vocabulary — they’re dynamic social spaces where meaning is constantly negotiated. By understanding where communication slips, teachers can create richer, clearer, and more responsive learning environments.

Measuring Mismatches in What EFL Teachers Say and What Their Students Hear (.pdf)

Current Projects




2023



2020



2019


Seen in


Easter(n) at the In-laws




holy northern poland that was robbed of its cobble. holy trees with bitten bark of beetle. holy disco polo. holy enter the house. holy mom doesn’t speak to dad. holy smell of duck. holy jelly. holly house slippers. holy wet dog. holy telephone pole outside the window. holy socks. holy  shampoo from germany. holy pop music from germany. holy television. holy smoking out the window. holy i’m just going to sit with my mom. holy strawberries. holy bike ride. holy mud swamp and still life with elk. holy ant hill . holy moving earth. holy solar panel. holy teenagers walking holy streets. holy second-hand shop. holy herbata. holy grapes. holy small grandma’s cookies. holy conversation. holy in the other room. holy cross above each door. holy a small toilet with no sink only a tub. holy neighbors. holy grandma’s sister’s hands. holy lunch. holy apology to eat. holy sunken eyes. holy car ride. holy holes in pavement. holy honey ham. holy herbata. holy vodka. holy tv.



holy book to read. holy painting. holy attic. holy basement mason jars or cucumber. holy basketball. holy air pump. holy beat a rug. holy dust. holy herbata. holy picture from college. holy tape player. holy power-supply. holy attic space. holy i’m just going to sit with my dad. holy dog walk. holy wet dog. holy no elk. holy ant mound. holy herbata. holy biscuits in the living room. holy cheesecake in the kitchen. holy herbata in the backyard. holy cold hands. holy noodles and ricotta. holy shower head from china. holy car ride. holy law mower. holy smell of gasoline . holy block of cheese. holy garden harvest. holy priest robe. holy dinner at noon. holy hand fold. holy sunken eyes. holy apology to eat. holy vodka. holy kava. holy dripping sink. holy tv. 


holy whiskey. holy brother-in-law.

holy cheesecake. holy sit in a chair. holy try to understand. holy just be there. holy look with unsunken eyes. holy eating grandma’s cookies. holy understanding. holy that traditions breathe holy life and what was.

SO MUCH MORE PLAYFUL, MY HAIR

 2010-2014

MY HAIR

SO
MUCH


We Vomit(ed)

we vomitted on the drive there / and on the drive home / we vomitted out the window / on the 405 the reflection / in the mirror / we vomitted heavily / heartedly / omitting remaining / breath from chest /


2012-2015

At the core of Tyko’s curatorial practice is the OBJECT:PARADISE Manifesto—a call to reframe art as a responsive, subjective experience. Art does not exist; it happens--and then it doesn’t.

Every project under the O:P banner acts as a kind of public experiment in presence: from the participatory layering of Momentument (March 2025), where community expression was painted, framed, and re-assembled into a living exhibition, to the international Performance, Deformance, Reformance (August 2023), which convened four regional collectives across Central Europe in sound, performance, language, and installation. Each unfolding—whether small or sweeping—asks: who & what prescribes value to art? And can it be the moment itself?

Ultimately, Tyko’s curations are not of products but of shared processes of emergence—temporary, open-ended, and dependent on the context in which they’re native.




He has discussed his curatorial approach in various outlets:


Past Projects



2023


Krakow Calling
OBJECT:VLAK
Why? Is? Poetry?


2021



2020



2019



2018


  • Poetry of Sound

Seen in



TYKO:TV Now Broadcasting 24/7 !