machine poetry · singulars
Singulars
Human and machine poetry performances.
Singulars is a series of live poetry performances where a human poet duels a machine. Each performance pits original human poems against machine-written counterparts on shared themes, and the audience votes to decide the winner. Those votes train the machine for the next performance.
The question underneath is whether a language model can write like a poet, and whether a room can tell. Each show answers it in public. It is artisanal RLHF: a feedback loop between human taste and machine output.
Halim Madi is a poet and performer who works where language meets software. He created Singulars and is the human in each duel, writing against a machine trained on the poems the audience keeps choosing.
reinforcement.exe · buenos aires
upcoming · Currents New Media Festival, Santa Fe ground.exeJune 1, 2027The duel moves to the desert. At the Currents New Media Festival in 2027, the poet and machine write under the light of Santa Fe.
upcoming · MozFest 2026, Fabra i Coats, Barcelona tame.exeOctober 28, 2026The duel returns to Barcelona. Three days at MozFest, in the foyer between the main stage and the coffee, the festival deciding each pair. October 28 to 30, 2026.
upcoming · Foreign Policy and Mozilla Foundation, UN General Assembly, New York praxis.exeSeptember 24, 2026The duel goes to the UN General Assembly. Poems on the wall of a Foreign Policy and Mozilla Foundation simulation on AI and imagination, voted on by the room as it arrives. September 24, 2026.
training · Casa dos Livros, Porto (online via Breaking the Code conference) recover.exeJune 19, 2026Performed at a distance. At Breaking the Code in Porto, the poet writes from another continent - the duel survives the latency, the dropouts, the recovery. June 19, 2026.
trained · Index Space, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY frontière.exeMay 13, 2026邊界 night in Brooklyn. The duel arrives at Index Space Greenpoint, hosted by bianjie.systems, supported by Gray Area and FWB. May 13, 2026, 10pm to 12am.
trained · Media Archaeology Lab, Boulder reverse.exeMarch 1, 2026A live poetry duel at the Media Archaeology Lab. The poet writes among vintage machines while the model trains on the archive of past performances.
trained · TIAT, San Francisco hard.exeDecember 5, 2025The machine learns in real time. Audience votes on each poem pair shape the model’s next generation: artisanal RLHF performed live on stage.
trained · Mozilla AI Residency, San Francisco versus.exeNovember 1, 2025Guest poets join the duel. The circle widens across languages (Arabic, French, English, Spanish) and the model absorbs every collision.
trained · ARG Ethereum Scholar Program, DevConnect Buenos Aires reinforcement.exeNovember 1, 2025Inside an open cube, the poet writes a new poem every thirty minutes. Red and blue stickers pile up as the audience becomes the trainer.
trained · European Artist Program, Paris, Barcelona carnation.exeMay 1, 2025The first Singulars performance. A pink dot beneath the poem that moved you most. The carnation, in English, means: I will never forget you.Loading a duel.
The humans who have dueled the machine so far.
Theory
co-founder, Decentered ArtsTheory leads the writing program and film of Decentered Arts. A former resident and volunteer at The Center SF and a recent MFA graduate from the University of San Francisco, he is publishing his first novel. Professionally he is a freelance video editor; in his free time he studies improv and comedy.
decentered.org →
Elise Liu
poet, immersive artist, technologistElise Liu is an immigrant third-culture kid poet, immersive artist, and technologist. Her work has appeared in Rattle, The Found Poetry Review, Thought Catalog, The Millions, and corporate digital trashcans around the world. She is the recipient of the 2023 Paper Moon Prize for fiction. She lives in San Francisco with two cats and is working on her first novel.
eliseliu.com →
Halim Madi
poet, performerHalim Madi is a poet and performer who works where language meets software. He created Singulars and is the human in each duel, writing against a machine trained on the poems the audience keeps choosing.
halimmadi.com →Singulars travels. If you run a festival, a venue, a lab or a conference and want the duel in your room, write to me.
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