This Happened Yet It Is Happening
On June 25th, 2022 Tyko Say carried his TV through Prague. On the screen read the text, "THIS HAPPENED YET IS HAPPENING." The purpose of the project was to promote the pragmatics of language,how context shapes meaning, to encourage a contextually-dependent poetics.
A text, when placed in separate spaces, assumes different meanings. Language happened, though the formation of its meaning is continuous--dependent on both the reader and context to provide meaning. In a world with prescribed denotation, connotation, and language we often forget the importance of context.
The walk ended in Jiřího z Poděbrad, where the TV was raised onto a pedestal in the middle of the park and the moving text became a temporary public sculpture. There,
Tyko addressed the gathered crowd, reading into the glow of the screen and inviting them to finish the work themselves—to decide, together, what exactly had happened, and what was still happening.
WHY IS THIS PRETENTIOUS OR IS IT / INTERPRET THIS LANGUAGE THE WAY YOU ARE DOING SO ALREADY / PRODUCER REQUIRES RECEIVER / PRODUCTION REQUIRES CONVENTION OF PRODUCT / INPUT MUST BE RECOGNIZED AS INPUT FOR INPUT TO BECOME INTAKE / PRODUCT REQUIRES VALIDATION / VALIDATION REQUIRES CONVENTION / CONVENTION IN ART CANNOT EXIST / WORDS MAKE UP THE SENTENCE , EACH ONE DIFFERENT / RECEIVERS MAKE UP THE MEANING , EACH ONE DIFFERENT / BAD WORDS ARE GOOD WORDS AS ALL ARE ( BAD WORDS ) / THE DICTIONARY IS INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST AND PREDICTION OF THE FUTURE / WHOSE INTERPRETATION ? / WHOSE PREDICTION ? / LANGUAGE HAPPENED , YET CONTINUES TO / KNOWLEDGE IS PROCEDURAL NOT STATIC / POETRY REMAINS AT LARGE / FORMALIZING CONVENTION DISREGARDS INTERPRETATION , CULTURE / IF ART DOES NOT EXIST WHAT ARE WE TAUGHT IN SCHOOL ? / WHOSE PAST ? / WHOSE FUTURE ? / WE WATCH THE TV BUT DO NOT LOOK AT IT / WE READ THE TEXT BUT DO NOT LOOK AT IT / WE GO TO THE POETRY READING BUT DO NOT LOOK AT IT / THE RIVER IS NEVER THE SAME , SO WHY DO WE STILL CALL IT A RIVER ? / ‘’THE BEST POETRY’’ REQUIRES SHARED UNDERSTANDING OF POETRY / THE ‘’BEST LANGUAGE’’ REQUIRES SHARED UNDERSTANDING OF LANGUAGE / SHARED UNDERSTANDING OF LANGUAGE REQUIRES SHARED UNDERSTANDING OF WORLD / WHOSE WORLD ? / “DEFINE : POETRY” REQUIRES STATIC INPUT OF “POETRY” / AT THE IMPLICATION ( AND INDICATION ) OF WHOSE CULTURE ( S ) IS THE PUBLIC CANON ? /
“ART” “APPEARS” “TO BE” FOR “ARTISTS” , “POETRY” FOR “POETS” / FEED THE SEED / FIRE THE CANON / THE “ARTIST” AND “POET” DOES NOT EXIST OUTSIDE OF THE EGO / LANGUAGE MAY NOT BE VALIDATED AS POETRY IF IT DOES NOT DEMONSTRATE CONVENTION , FIRE FROM CANON / OR WORSE — INPUT MAY NOT BECOME INTAKE / THE CODE PRODUCED THEN , REMAINS AT THAT / CODE / WE CAN ONLY RECEIVE ART / WE CANNOT NOT PRODUCE ART / WE KNOW THIS BECAUSE THE POEM CAN BE READ IN TWO SEPARATE SPACES AND HAVE TWO SEPARATE MEANINGS / QUANTUM SUPERPOSITION / THE PRODUCER CAN ALSO BE THE RECEIVER , THOUGH EACH ARE SEPARATE AGENTS / QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT / WHO WROTE IN YOUR DIARY 10 YEARS AGO ? / NOT YOU / BUT YOU TEN YEARS AGO / ALL PRODUCTION IS SUBJECTED TO RECEPTION / ALL RECEPTION IS SUBJECTED TO TIME , SPACE / THE WORD ‘’RIVER’’ NEVER ADDRESSES THE SAME RIVER TWICE / WHO YOU WERE YESTERDAY IS WHO YOU WERE YESTERDAY NOT TODAY / LANGUAGE IS THE SAME / PRODUCTION OF A TEXT REQUIRES RECEPTION / RECEPTION REQUIRES CONTEXT / CONTEXT IS DEPENDENT ON TIME , SPACE / CONVENTION AND THE MISREPRESENTATION OF IT IS BOTH CONSTRUCTIVE AND DESTRUCTIVE TO ITS INNOVATION / NO MORE ASKING THE PRODUCER WHAT IT MEANS / THE RECEIVER IS THE ARTIST, THE POET.
WHAT IS YOUR INSPIRATION FOR THIS PIECE ?
/
YOU HAVE CREATED ITS MEANING.
Video of the performance & reading
- The CIFRA + Art Night Venice (CIFRA, Sleepless Art Night; Venice, Italy)
- The Outsiders (The Wrong Biennale; Online)
- November 2022 Issue (South Flordia Poetry Journal)
- Terrain 13 (Terrain festival; Spokane, Washington)
- HYB4 Čítárna: Poetronika ! (Kampus Hybernska, Prague)