--- title: "Computer Theater (Algorithmic Theater): the plays - Halim Madi" url: https://www.halimmadi.com/computer-theater/ description: Computer theater is live performance made with computers, also called algorithmic theater. The plays, everything performed since 2014, the writing on the form, and a reading room with the seven components, the manifesto, a graph of the history and the four lineages. By Halim Madi. generated: 2026-09-23 --- # Computer Theater ## computer-theater the plays and a reading room · ongoing Computer theater is live performance made with computers. The computer can be the set, the projection system, a scene partner, or the thing writing the script. It has no single origin. Four histories feed into it: theater makers who broke the form open, artists who connected their bodies to networks, directors who brought cameras and screens onstage, and artists who treat the computer screen as the stage. Some people call this algorithmic theater, Annie Dorsen’s term for shows where an algorithm writes or steers the performance. Computer theater is the wider name. It covers that, and everything from Piscator’s projectors to a browser performed live. ## the-plays/how-to-make-a-baby ![How to Make a Baby at tiat: Halim performs at the microphone while his own face is projected large behind him.](https://www.halimmadi.com/Assets/images/works/how-to-make-a-baby/featured.jpg) *how to make a baby, tiat* ![The title card HOW TO MAKE A BABY projected over the stage at tiat, Halim at the microphone and the audience in the foreground.](https://www.halimmadi.com/Assets/images/works/how-to-make-a-baby/stage-audience.jpg) *the room at tiat, july 25, 2026* ![Halim raises a hand at the end of How to Make a Baby as the credits scroll on the projection behind him.](https://www.halimmadi.com/Assets/images/works/how-to-make-a-baby/credits.jpg) *the credits roll* ### [How to Make a Baby](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/how-to-make-a-baby-2026/) Jul 25, '26 · tiat, San Francisco A participatory computer theater performance set in 2036. Prop 43 wants the childfree taxed to fund elder care; a visionary founder arrives with a solution, hidden motives, and a contract for everyone in the room. Nobody watches from outside: the audience argues, votes, signs, and the play ends however the room decides. Premiered at tiat, San Francisco, July 25, 2026; re-performed with Ana María Caballero that August. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/how-to-make-a-baby-2026/) ## the-plays/become-everyone ![Nineteen folders open on a dark desktop, projected across two screens.](https://www.halimmadi.com/Assets/images/works/ive-always-wanted-to-become-everyone-2026/featured.jpeg) ### [I've Always Wanted to Become Everyone](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/ive-always-wanted-to-become-everyone-2026/) Apr '26 · CultureHub, Los Angeles Nineteen folders on a dark desktop, projected on two screens. The audience opens them, and a yellow physarum mold grows between whatever they choose to see. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/ive-always-wanted-to-become-everyone-2026/) ## the-plays/borderline ![Borderline in performance: a body on stage against projected code.](https://www.halimmadi.com/Assets/images/works/borderline/featured.jpg) ### [Borderline](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/borderline/) Dec '24 - Jan '25 · San Francisco A full-body multimedia poem about borders, queerness, and the architecture of belonging. Arabic zajal, projected code, and a body on stage negotiating all of it at once. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/borderline/) ## the-plays/invasions ![Invasions in performance: a body at work in a projected room.](https://www.halimmadi.com/Assets/images/works/invasions-performance/featured.jpg) ### [Invasions](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/invasions-performance/) Jun '22 - Apr '24 · San Francisco, Los Angeles, CDMX, Santa Barbara, Ojai Performance piece exploring scam, intrusion, and intimacy. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/invasions-performance/) ## chronology/ ### Everything performed, 2014 onward The full ledger. - **I've Always Wanted to Become Everyone · Apr 8 and 25, '26 · San Francisco · Los Angeles · 2026** A sneak-peek reading at TIAT, San Francisco, on April 8, then the premiere at CultureHub LA on April 25. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/ive-always-wanted-to-become-everyone-2026/) - **Era Puck · Mar 2026 · 2026** The Era puck became the BCI in the play. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/era-puck-2026/) - **How to Make a Baby · Jul 25, 2026 · TIAT, San Francisco · 2026** A participatory computer theater performance set in 2036: Prop 43 wants the childfree taxed to fund elder care, and a visionary founder arrives with a solution, hidden motives, and an invitation for everyone - including the audience. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/how-to-make-a-baby-2026/) - **A Night of Computational Theater · Aug 21, 2026 · tiat, San Francisco · 2026** An open mic of computational theater and desktop performance, hosted and curated by Halim Madi with the computational poetry reading group at tiat. [the listing ↗](https://luma.com/computertheater) - **Techno Retro Poetics · Aug 11, 2026 · tiat, San Francisco · 2026** Two poets, analog and multimedia readings: Ana María Caballero reading from her new book Material, and Halim Madi performing with web artifacts and the models he fine-tunes. [the listing ↗](https://luma.com/technoretropoet) - **We Called Us Poetry · Jun '25 · Toronto · 2025** Interactive performance and computational poem on AI as god vs apocalypse. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/we-called-us/) - **Future v. · May '25 · Online · 2025** A browser piece that opens as three walls of punctuation you drag and fuse - a hub disguised as a blank page, each character a doorway. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/future-v/) - **Feed It · May '25 · Seoul, South Korea · 2025** A durational AI-body performance where audience answers shape a real-time generative portrait. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/feed-it/) - **I Live Here · Apr '25 · San Francisco, CA, USA · 2025** A walking poem through San Francisco's Tenderloin, mapping queer nightlife from Beirut to the Bay. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/i-live-here/) - **Square, Powder, Claw · Feb 23 · SF · 2025** A triptych on boyhood performed at tiat #10 (the intersection of art & technology), Internet Archive, San Francisco. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/square-powder-claw/) - **We Made It · Dec 5-14 · San Francisco · 2024** Performance at Counterpulse, San Francisco - The Happy Endings Show. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/we-made-it/) - **Borderline · Dec '24 - Jan '25 · San Francisco, CA, USA · 2024** A full-body multimedia poem about borders, queerness, and the architecture of belonging. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/borderline/) - **Happy Endings Show · Sep 10 · SF · 2024** Make Out Room. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/happy-endings-show/) - **Algorithm's Embrace · Jun '24 · San Francisco, CA, USA · 2024** Performance. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/algorithms-embrace/) - **Deserve It · Dec '23 - Nov '24 · San Francisco, CA, USA · 2023** A durational immigration performance - a fictional visa form that scrambles your answers into poetry. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/deserve-it/) - **Invasions · Jun '22 - Apr '24 · San Francisco, Los Angeles, CDMX, Santa Barbara, Ojai · 2022** Performance piece exploring scam, intrusion, and intimacy. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/invasions-performance/) - **Avenir · Mar '15 - Sep '17 · Paris, Sao Paulo · 2015** A series of site-specific interventions exploring futures, migration, and the politics of public space. [open the work page](https://www.halimmadi.com/works/avenir/) ## dispatches/ ### The writing Writing about computer theater, published on Substack. New pieces land there first. - [Mar 24 · 2026 · Vibe Thinking, Part 1 · written while making the digital theater piece 'i've always wanted to become everyone': almost outsourcing a mother's monologue to the next-token predictor, and what that arbitrage does to thought](https://halimmadi.substack.com/p/vibe-thinking) - [Nov 4 · 2025 · The Wire and the Cuddle Puddle · early networked performance (hole in space, satellite arts, electronic cafe) as communion: art living in the transmission between bodies and machines, kin to the mosh pit](https://halimmadi.substack.com/p/the-wire-and-the-cuddle-puddle) - [Sep 2 · 2025 · Embodied Practice in the Age of AI: Cosmotechnics Revisited · why performance art, theater, and live poetry matter more under ai: presence is not replaced by digital systems, only shifted and deepened, via yuk hui's cosmotechnics](https://halimmadi.substack.com/p/embodied-practice-in-the-age-of-ai) ## reading-room/ ### The reading room - [components.txt · open · The seven parts most works of computer theater share.](https://www.halimmadi.com/computer-theater/reading-room/#components) - [manifesto.txt · open · A manifesto for computer theater. The body will be present.](https://www.halimmadi.com/computer-theater/reading-room/#manifesto) - [lineages.exe · open · A graph of the history: 54 points across four lineages, with the lines between them.](https://www.halimmadi.com/computer-theater/reading-room/#graph) - [open the reading room](https://www.halimmadi.com/computer-theater/reading-room/) ## enquire.txt ### Commissions and touring The plays travel and new ones get commissioned. Write to me about a run at your venue, a play built for your room, or a night of computer theater with your audience. [start a conversation](https://www.halimmadi.com/connect/#start)