--- title: Singulars - machine poetry performances by Halim Madi url: https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars description: "Singulars is a series of live machine poetry performances by computational poet Halim Madi: a poet writes against a model trained on his own poems, and the audience votes. The votes train the next machine." generated: 2026-10-19 --- # Singulars ## singulars.txt machine poetry · 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.jpg ![Reinforcement.exe performance with poet writing inside the cube and audience voting on the wall](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/images/reinforcement-exe/IGAC-exhibition-photography-049.jpg) reinforcement.exe · buenos aires ## tools/ 5 open - [chat with the models](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/chat) - [machine over time](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/evolution) - [theme voting](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/theme-voting) - [performance timer](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/timer) - [reading room](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/reading-room) ## performances/ 10 in the series - [ground.exe](https://currentsnewmedia.org/) · upcoming · Currents New Media Festival, Santa Fe · June 1, 2027 The duel moves to the desert. At the Currents New Media Festival in 2027, the poet and machine write under the light of Santa Fe. - [tame.exe](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/tame-exe) · training · MozFest 2026, Fabra i Coats, Barcelona · October 28, 2026 The 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. - [pass.exe](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/pass-exe) · trained · Foreign Policy and Mozilla Foundation, UN General Assembly, New York · September 24, 2026 The 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. - [recover.exe](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/recover-exe) · trained · Casa dos Livros, Porto (online via Breaking the Code conference) · June 19, 2026 Performed 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. - [frontière.exe](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/frontiere-exe) · trained · Index Space, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY · May 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. - [reverse.exe](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/reverse-exe) · trained · Media Archaeology Lab, Boulder · March 1, 2026 A live poetry duel at the Media Archaeology Lab. The poet writes among vintage machines while the model trains on the archive of past performances. - [hard.exe](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/hard-exe) · trained · TIAT, San Francisco · December 5, 2025 The machine learns in real time. Audience votes on each poem pair shape the model’s next generation: artisanal RLHF performed live on stage. - [versus.exe](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/versus-exe) · trained · Mozilla AI Residency, San Francisco · November 1, 2025 Guest poets join the duel. The circle widens across languages (Arabic, French, English, Spanish) and the model absorbs every collision. - [reinforcement.exe](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/reinforcement-exe) · trained · ARG Ethereum Scholar Program, DevConnect Buenos Aires · November 1, 2025 Inside an open cube, the poet writes a new poem every thirty minutes. Red and blue stickers pile up as the audience becomes the trainer. - [carnation.exe](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/carnation-exe) · trained · European Artist Program, Paris, Barcelona · May 1, 2025 The first Singulars performance. A pink dot beneath the poem that moved you most. The carnation, in English, means: I will never forget you. ## vote.exe You can vote here. One poem is by a human, one is by a machine, and you are not told which. Pick the one you prefer, then submit your vote. The duel on the desk is one theme from [tame.exe](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/tame-exe), two poems side by side. Open the performance to read every theme and vote. ## reading/ 3 pieces - [Reading Room](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/reading-room) · open An annotated bibliography of the heritage behind Singulars: imitation games, humans against machines, training by reward, poetry machines and the poetry duel. - [Lessons Learned Inside a Poetry Cage in Buenos Aires](https://halimmadi.substack.com/p/what-i-learned-inside-a-poetry-cage) · read Notes from a performance where an audience became the training loop. - [Eat.exe](https://secondvoice.substack.com/p/eatexe) · read Drawing a Latent Future with Electric Lines of Desire ## Participating Poets 4 so far The humans who have dueled the machine so far. ### Elise Liu poet, immersive artist, technologist ![Elise Liu](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/images/poets/elise-liu.webp) Elise 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](https://eliseliu.com) ### Theory co-founder, Decentered Arts ![Theory](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/images/poets/theory.webp) Theory 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](https://decentered.org) ### Max Stossel poet, filmmaker, speaker ![Max Stossel](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/images/poets/max-stossel.webp) Max Stossel is an award winning poet, filmmaker and speaker, named by Forbes as one of the best storytellers of the year. His one-man show “Words That Move” is currently selling out theaters all over NYC and is beginning to tour in select locations. Spanning across five continents, from Lincoln Center in NY to the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Max’s performances have been described as mind-expanding, profound, and hilarious all at once. His work has been translated to fourteen languages, won multiple film festivals, and has been viewed over 20 million times online. [wordsthatmove.com](https://wordsthatmove.com) ### Halim Madi poet, performer ![Halim Madi](https://www.halimmadi.com/singulars/images/poets/halim.webp) 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. [halimmadi.com](https://www.halimmadi.com) ## enquire.txt Singulars travels. If you run a festival, a venue, a lab or a conference and want the duel in your room, write to me. [start a conversation](https://www.halimmadi.com/connect/#start)