Nick Montfort
docmofo.bsky.social
Nick Montfort
@docmofo.bsky.social

Computational & experimental poet, teacher, curator, editor, researcher. Faculty at MIT & UiB. Lab/studio: The Trope Tank. Micropress: Bad Quarto

Nick Montfort is an American computer scientist and poet who is a professor of digital media at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he directs a lab called The Trope Tank. He also holds a part-time position at the University of Bergen where he leads a node on computational narrative systems at the Center for Digital Narrative. Among his publications are seven books of computer-generated literature and six books from the MIT Press, several of which are collaborations. His work also includes digital projects, many of them in the form of short programs. He lives in New York City. .. more

Computer science 33%
Political science 14%
Pinned
OUTPUT: An Anthology of Computer-Generated Text, 1953–2023 (co-edited w/ Lillian-Yvonne Bertram) is out from @mitpress.bsky.social & Counterpath!

mitpress.mit.edu/978026254981...

It’s been awesome to encounter texts & many author/programmers over the years. Glad to share this joy via this book!
Output
An anthology of seven decades of English-language outputs from computer generation systems, chronicling the vast history of machine-written texts created lon...
mitpress.mit.edu

This year I won’t make it! Hope it is great for all, though

I must go east or west, but I cannot decide

Daniel Temkin’s book Forty-Four Esolangs, coming from the MIT Press on Sep 23 in the Hardcopy series, is reviewed & @dtemkin.bsky.social himself is interviewed in IEEE Spectrum

spectrum.ieee.org/esoteric-pro...
Can You Code With Pictures? Esoteric Languages Challenge How We Code
Esoteric languages spark creativity by challenging conventional coding. Daniel Temkin is writing codes to confront the lack of creativity in AI code.
spectrum.ieee.org

A teaser trailer for START ME UP, a short film by Albert Figurt & Nick Montfort (that’s me), is now online

nickm.com/collab/figur...
Start Me Up
nickm.com

Awesome time at WordHack in #NYC last night, where we premiered our film START ME UP to a sold-out Wonderville!

Thanks (and CONGRATULATIONS!) to Todd Anderson, founder & host of WordHack, and thanks to director Albert Figurt and star Henry Jenkins for joining us via video for a Q&A

Reposted by Nick Montfort

happy to be in this wonderful anthology of coded poetry edited by @docmofo.bsky.social

My & Albert Figurt’s short film START ME UP will have its world premiere on August 21, 2025 at 7pm at WordHack, Wonderville, in the Brooklyn part of #NYC

nickm.com/collab/figur...
Start Me Up
nickm.com

I placed this text in a file named “o” (lowercase letter o). Any guesses as to why?

w () { s=($1); echo -n ${s[$RANDOM%5]}; }
s () { echo -n "$1 "; }
w "old still dim calm wide"; s; w "pond tree log cave fen"; echo; \
s "frog"; w "jumps swims looks drops flicks"; s; w "in out past up off"; \
echo; w "splish drip glint hum sob"; echo;

John Cayley stages his The code is saying[.js] for the Web

programmatology.com/apps/saying/

Originally presented in print in RUN RUN RUN

badquar.to/publications...

Bad Quarto is pleased to present a new artistic & poetic booklet with short programs and their output

badquar.to/publications...
Run Run Run
A zine with short text-generating computer programs and their outputs.
badquar.to

At the #NYC Swiss Institute last Saturday, a great performance by @l-a-n-g-u-a-g-e.bsky.social & davidebalula.com documented a bit although not captured in this nice article in Jacket2 — with some product placement for the OUTPUT anthology!

jacket2.org/commentary/A...
Poetry Has No Future Unless It Comes to an End: Intelligent Artifice and the Poetics of Artificial Intelligence | Jacket2
jacket2.org

A new OA article, this one in Global Hip Hop Studies. I discuss hip hop visions of the future, with a strong focus on two albums from 2000 & their lyrical content

www.doi.org/10.1386/ghhs...
Rap beyond the Afterfuture | Intellect
A comparison of two visions of the future from the year 2000: Deltron 3030 by the trio of the same name and Welcome to the Afterfuture by Mike Ladd. Many aspects of these albums are considered, includ...
www.doi.org

Just finished an @elo2025.bsky.social workshop using codeberg.org/nickmontfort... — a *very* short program to not only explain some about Markov chain generation, but also to allow people to use different documents for generation, try different parameters, and make modifications to the code.
frag
Generate a text by using a Markov process on a specified file
codeberg.org

Reposted by Nick Montfort

From an anthology of computer-generated text to a model for the equitably resilient city, MIT News's 2025 Summer Reading List includes 12 Press books from MIT authors: news.mit.edu/2025/summer-...
Summer 2025 reading from MIT
A summer reading list features books by MIT faculty and staff that were published from July 2024 to June 2025.
news.mit.edu

I’m reading on July 10, 7:30pm at TYPE Books 883 Queen St W #Toronto with a wonderful group! We’re celebrating the publication of Kyle Booten’s GYMS, I’ll read from my new ALL THE WAY FOR THE WIN w/ @lillianyvonne.bsky.social & Ivetta Sunyoung Kang

Reposted by Nick Montfort

In France they say “un café allongé”
It’s an americano in Toronto

#poem

Taper #14 : Sonnets is now out! This issue has 28 diverse works of computational poetry (broadly imagined), and, as always, they are all free software for you to study, share, and modify. Many thanks to the authors & editors

taper.badquar.to/14/
Taper #14
taper.badquar.to

An MIT publication with some coverage of my general concerns & recent work

betterworld.mit.edu/spectrum/iss...
The Art of Computer Programming
MIT professor Nick Montfort SM ’98 brings poetry and computer programming together with artistic results
betterworld.mit.edu

Reposted by Nick Montfort

PhD fellowship advertised here at the Center for Digital Narrative to research Computational Narrative Systems with @docmofo.bsky.social - applications due August 15! www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...
PhD Research Fellowship in Digital Culture with the Center for Digital Narrative (280653) | University of Bergen
Job title: PhD Research Fellowship in Digital Culture with the Center for Digital Narrative (280653), Employer: University of Bergen, Deadline: Friday, August 15, 2025
www.jobbnorge.no

Yes, but my reply bounced and I didn’t manage to connect on Mastodon until just recently — glad to hear from you there & thanks for your interest!

In less than two days, Allison Parrish’s book TWO OF PENTACLES, published by Nothing to Say, will be launched! I’m delighted that I’ll be reading at the event #NYC

www.eventbrite.com/e/two-of-pen...
Two of Pentacles Release Party
We are excited to invite you to a special evening celebrating the release of Two of Pentacles by Allison Parish!
www.eventbrite.com

A collection of computer-generated poems from the turn of the century — coming in August in the MIT Press series Hardcopy, which I edit with @maryflanagan.bsky.social

mitpress.mit.edu/978026255286...
The Complete Stein Poems
The Stein poems of Jackson Mac Low (1922–2004) were written between 1998 and 2003. Comprising more than 500 pages of text, this edited series of 161 po...
mitpress.mit.edu

Reposted by Nick Montfort

OUTPUT at the Illinois State University AI & the Humanities Symposium! @docmofo.bsky.social

You can't be gangsta without angst

My & Patsy Baudoin’s French/English text-generating installation will be part of the show at Jeu de Paume in Paris, April 11 – September 21. The public opening is April 10!

jeudepaume.org/evenement/ex...
Exposition : Le monde selon l'IA - Jeu de Paume
Les IA génératives en art, photographie, cinéma, littérature et musique suscitent étonnement, frayeur, enthousiasme ou scepticisme.
jeudepaume.org

No foolin', @lillianyvonne.bsky.social & I are doing a *free* and *public* event about our anthology OUTPUT in #Baltimore this Saturday at 11:30am —

CityLit Festival
Lord Baltimore Hotel
Hanover Suite A, Mezzanine

www.citylitproject.org/event/the-li...
CityLit Festival presents The Literary Life of AI: Output Through the Years – CityLit Project
www.citylitproject.org

Friends in Montréal, please join me, Sofian Audry, Bill Kennedy, Erín Moure & Darren Wershler MONDAY MARCH 17 4pm at Concordia for readings from & discussions of OUTPUT: An Anthology of Computer-Generated Text 1953–2023

milieux.concordia.ca/event/an-eve...