Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nick Montfort

@docmofo.bsky.social

550 followers 220 following 51 posts

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

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Dec 2

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

2 14 54

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 14d

I must go east or west, but I cannot decide

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 23d

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

4 18

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Sep 6

www.jstor.org/stable/42945...

The Disnarrated on JSTOR

Gerald Prince, The Disnarrated, Style, Vol. 22, No. 1, Narrative Theory and Criticism (Spring 1988), pp. 1-8

www.jstor.org

1 1

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Sep 1

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Aug 30

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

1 4

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Aug 22

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

Room full of people in a video game arcade space; we’ve pulled up the screen where START ME UP was shown and are projecting Albert and Henry on the well behind during the Q&A session

1 4

Reposted by Nick Montfort

jörg piringer @jpiringer.bsky.social · Aug 12

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

1 10

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Aug 9

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

1 2

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Aug 4

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

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Aug 4

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;

2 3

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Aug 2

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...

Screenshot of Cayley’s poem:

" generating ceasing regular world reading last constantly
for reading constantly math of last what if being recognit-
-s life breathing recognitions thinking generating saying sa-
here to saying regular ceasing word here moving the retur-
-nent the ceasing memory images what being here constan-
generating recognitions being what expressing thoughts m-
-turn life being what thoughts random imagining return be "

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Jul 27

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

3 10

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Jul 25

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

1 3

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Jul 15

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

1 4

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Jul 10

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

1 5

Reposted by Nick Montfort

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Jul 1

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

Launch of Gyms - Kyle Booten
with Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, lvetta Sunyoung Kang, Nick Montfort
TYPE Books 883 Queen St W, Toronto
Thursday July 10 7:30pm

3 4

Reposted by Nick Montfort

MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · Jul 4

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

1 5 13

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Jul 1

3 4

Reposted by Nick Montfort

anjchang @anjchang.bsky.social · Jun 30

"Sonnets"-- Issue 14 of Taper is OUT.Read it, get inspired, submit to #15 here: taper.badquar.to/14 #DigitalPoetry #ElectronicLiterature #CreativeCoding #LitJournal #OnlineLitMag #CodeArt #InteractivePoetry
@wolfchirp.bsky.social @geryon.bsky.social @leoflores.bsky.social @docmofo.bsky.social

4 3

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Jun 26

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

#poem

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Jun 17

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

1 4

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · May 30

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

2 9

Reposted by Nick Montfort

Jill Walker Rettberg @jilltxt.bsky.social · May 28

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

7 6

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Apr 28

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!

Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · Apr 25

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

1 7