Info

RPN is an installation which uses the reverse  Polish notation to generate interactive musical  and visual compositions with elements of live  coding and interaction via the users’ mobile  devices and the data downloaded in real time from the internet and satellites.

The reverse Polish notation (RPN) is a mathematical notation in which an operator follows all its operands. For example, “2+2” is “2 2 +” in RPN.  RPN was developed chiefly by Jan Łukasiewicz,  a Lviv-born Polish mathematician and member of what has come to be known as the Polish School of Mathematics, the interwar work of  which is considered to have been instrumental  in advancing mathematics and information sciences worldwide. In RPN, Janicki not only uses the  reverse Polish notation as a mathematical  and artistic technique but also plays with the  colloquial meaning of “the reverse,” understood  as a repositioning of the existing order and  a capacity to disagree and, generally, to go against the tide. An important part of the installation is a piece composed in the SuperCollider environment and made available under the open source licence for further creative modifications.

The audience can influence the work’s operation by means of any device with a WWW browser via paweljanicki.jp/rpn.

Paweł Janicki, born in 1974, a Polish independent artist, interactive director and producer working with the micro sound aesthetics and algorithmic composition.  He creates audiovisual interactive systems, installations and performances, continuously developing new software tools and interfaces. Difficult to classify and combining improvised sound, live programming, communication protocols and hacking, his works have been shown at many contemporary art festivals and events. He has won numerous awards, including the Gold Medal at the Prague Quadrennial (2015) for an intermedia team work.