Singulars

Human vs Machine Poetry Performances

Singulars is a series of live poetry duels between a human poet and a machine. The audience votes to decide the winner, and their votes train the machine for the next performance. A project by Halim Madi. Learn more about it.

Chat with the Models →Theme Voting →Performance Timer →

Reinforcement.exe performance with poet writing inside the cube and audience voting on the wall

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Performances

ground.exe

upcoming

Currents New Media Festival, Santa Fe

June 12, 2026

The duel moves to the desert. At the Currents New Media Festival, the poet and machine write under the light of Santa Fe.

Printed poems with purple voting stickers at the Media Archaeology Lab

reverse.exe

training

Media Archaeology Lab, Boulder

June 1, 2025

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.

Audience examining printed poems with blue voting stickers at TIAT San Francisco

hard.exe

trained

TIAT, San Francisco

November 15, 2024

The machine learns in real time. Audience votes on each poem pair shape the model’s next generation: artisanal RLHF performed live on stage.

Printed poems with red and blue voting stickers from audience

reinforcement.exe

trained

ARG Ethereum Scholar Program, DevConnect Buenos Aires

June 20, 2024

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.

versus.exe

trained

Mozilla AI Residency, San Francisco

March 10, 2024

Guest poets join the duel. The circle widens across languages (Arabic, French, English, Spanish) and the model absorbs every collision.

carnation.exe

trained

European Artist Program, Paris, Barcelona

December 1, 2023

The first Singulars performance. A pink dot beneath the poem that moved you most. The carnation, in English, means: I will never forget you.