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 →Machine vs Me Over Time →Theme Voting →Performance Timer →
Reinforcement.exe performance with poet writing inside the cube and audience voting on the wall
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Performances

Currents New Media Festival logo

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 at Index Space Greenpoint, May 2026

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.

Printed poems with purple voting stickers at the Media Archaeology Lab

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.

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

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 performance at Mozilla AI Residency, San Francisco

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.

Printed poems with red and blue voting stickers from audience

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 performance installation with printed poems displayed side by side

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.