Ogród Mechaniczny wg Tytusa Czyżewskiego
Description
“The Mechanical Garden” by Tytus Czyżewski from 1920 is an early example of visual poetry, in which word and image create a shared structure of meanings. In Paweł Janicki’s version, the work comes to life in digital media – letters and signs react to the presence and movement of the viewer, transforming into a dynamic arrangement of forms. This miniature develops the futurist vision of the relationship between art, nature, and technology, exploring how past ideas can be reinterpreted through the language of contemporary media.
Read more
Tytus Czyżewski (28 December 1880 — May 1945) was a Polish painter, art theoretician, Futurist poet, playwright, member of the Polish Formists, and Colorist. His work “Mechanical Garden” (orig. “Ogród Mechaniczny”) from 1920 is a great example of concrete poetry (or visual poetry) that is “written” simultaneously with words and images. Typographic elements (here frames, braces and text layout) gain their own meaning, “they say” in the poem as clearly as words.
“Mechanical Garden after Tytus Czyżewski” is an interactive artwork based on the original concept by Czyżewski, re-created in a contemporary medium (software). The work touches the issues of conditional arts, synthetic nature and the relation of art, nature and technology in general.
“Mechanical Garden after Tytus Czyżewski” by Paweł Janicki exists also as an early (2011) version created in form of the stand-alone software commisioned by the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts (Lublin/Poland).
Technical documentation
Parameters passed via URL
- splash 0 or 1; default 1; disables or enables the display of the splash screen upon Miniature startup
- gui 0 or 1; default 1; hides/shows the graphical user interface panel
- famo user | environment (or env); default user; [facingMode] allows forcing the use of the front (user) or rear (environment) camera on devices equipped with dual cameras (most modern mobile devices)
- mirror 0 or 1; default 1; disables/enables image mirroring mode
- motion 0 or 1; default 1; disables/enables the motion detector
- dark 0 or 1; default 0; switches color schemes between light and dark (the “dark” toggle)
- ilang en or pl; default en; sets the interface language (additional languages can be added)
- lang en or pl; default pl; sets the content language of the installation (additional languages can be added)
- sens 0.0 … 1.0; sets the initial normalized sensitivity of the motion detector (the “sensitivity” slider)
- pointer 0 or 1; default 1; hides/shows the mouse cursor
- worker 0 or 1; default 0; allows blocking the browser’s built-in mechanisms that suspend the program when the window is not visible
- growingspeed default 1.0; sets the growth speed of “flowers”
- butterflies forces a fixed, specified number of “butterflies”, independent of the image size
- flowers forces a fixed, specified number of “flowers”, independent of the image size
- butterflysize forces a fixed, specified size of “butterflies”, independent of the image size
- flowersize forces a fixed, specified size of “flowers”, independent of the image size
- butterflystroke forces a fixed, specified outline thickness of “butterflies”, independent of the image size
- flowerstroke forces a fixed, specified outline thickness of “flowers”, independent of the image size
- butterflyfont name of the font used to display “butterfly” names
- flowerfont name of the font used to display “flower” names
- butterflytextsize font size used to display “butterfly” names
- flowertextsize font size used to display “flower” names
- synth 0 or 1; default 1; disables/enables the internal sound generator
- cntextmsg 0 or 1; default 1; disables/enables the conversion of the number of buffered external control messages for “flower” growth into growth speed
- ws address; disabled by default; enables and sets the address (usually localhost:9001) for WebSocket communication (allows external control of Miniature and customization)
- xws address; disabled by default; enables and sets the address (usually ws://localhost:9001) with protocol specification for WebSocket communication (allows external control of Miniature and customization)
- midiinport disabled by default; MIDI port number for external control of Miniature (receiving messages)
- midioutport disabled by default; MIDI port number for external control of Miniature (sending messages)
Messages passed via WebSocket
Messages to which Miniature responds
- index status (two numbers, no prefix) index (flower index counted from 0) status (if the parameter is greater than 0.0 the flower grows, otherwise it wilts)
Messages sent by Miniature
- ogrod collision flower index, butterfly index
- ogrod flower flower index, normalized vertical position of the flower
- ogrod butterfly butterfly index, normalized horizontal position of the butterfly, normalized vertical position of the butterfly
MIDI
Messages to which Miniature responds
- Note Off on channel 1 stops the growth of the flower with an index corresponding to the note index (pitch)
- Note On on channel 1 starts the growth of the flower with an index corresponding to the note index (pitch)
Messages sent by Miniature
- CC flower_index on channel 5 controller value is the index of the butterfly the flower collides with
- CC butterfly_index on channel 8 controller value is the index of the flower the butterfly collides with
- CC butterfly_index on channel 6 controller value corresponds to the horizontal position of the butterfly
- CC butterfly_index on channel 7 controller value corresponds to the vertical position of the butterfly
- CC flower_index on channel 4 controller value corresponds to the height of the flower
- Note Off on channel 2 indicates that the flower with an index corresponding to the MIDI note pitch parameter has finished growing
- Note On on channel 2 indicates that the flower with an index corresponding to the MIDI note pitch parameter has started growing
- Note Off on channel 3 indicates that the flower with an index corresponding to the MIDI note pitch parameter continues its development after initialization (initialization occurs after collision with a butterfly)
- Note On on channel 3 indicates that the flower with an index corresponding to the MIDI note pitch parameter has started a new life cycle (has been re-initialized after collision with a butterfly)
Communication with MaxMSP
Messages to which Miniature responds
not applicable
Messages sent by Miniature
not applicable