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.

Performances

ground.exe

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.

frontière.exe

training

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 – 12am.

reverse.exe

trained

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.

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.

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.