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Nick Montfort

@docmofo.bsky.social
674 followers 247 following 73 posts

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

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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
ALL THE WAY FOR THE WIN, my book of #poetry consisting entirely of three-letter words, is now 40% off, available for only £5.40 penteractpress.com/store/all-th... Six of the poems in the book were published in DIAGRAM — take a look! thediagram.com/24_4/montfor...
penteractpress.com
All the Way for the Win - Nick Montfort — Penteract Press
Monochrome, Paperback, 210 x 148mm, 48pp All the Way for the Win belongs to the Oulipian tradition, or anti-tradition, of writing under an innovative constraint. The main one is that the text is a ...
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
GLOBAL LETTER, the last of the anthology trilogy from Bad Quarto, is now finally listed online! A hand-bound booklet with programs + computer-generated texts, work by 14 contributors in América & Europe badquar.to/publications...
badquar.to
Global Letter
A zine with short text-generating computer programs and their outputs.
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
In exactly a month —
Picture of me in a sport coat in front of a very impressive bookcase of mine, with text:

Galinsky’s POETRY IN NEW YORK, Thursday August 13, 8-9:30pm, featuring — ME

10 poets, 5 minutes each, a free event

Book Club Bar, 197 E 3rd St by Ave B
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I’m speaking about the Narrative Nubs project (to reimplement story generators from decades past) at the upcoming, online ELO conference. Join the ELO to attend; there’s no other fee. My talk’s in the Thu July 16 10:30am-11:30am session. stars.library.ucf.edu/elo2026/comb...
stars.library.ucf.edu
Full Schedule | ELO (un)supervised 2026
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Tomorrow the short film Albert Figurt & I made entirely on the Windows 95 desktop will have its European premiere at the Center for Digital Narrative, University of Bergen, Norway — 12noon! nickm.com/collab/figur...
nickm.com
Start Me Up
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Congrats on Inverting Eliza — from the author of Twee Lit!
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
We were stopped by police for photographing a sticker on a “bomb-proof trash can” of that sort at that very train station
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Narrative Nubs is a joint project of the MIT Trope Tank https:// tropetank.com and the Computational Narrative Systems node at the Center for Digital Narrative, University of Bergen @cdn-bergen.bsky.social Six contributors made v1.0 possible; see the release note.
tropetank.com
The Trope Tank
Nick Montfort’s lab/studio, seeking to develop new poetic practices and new understandings of digital media by focusing on the material, formal, and historical aspects of computation and language.
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Today is release v1.0 of Narrative Nubs — Story generators based on systems from the past 65+ years, capturing essentials, as in “the nub of the argument.” GESTER, Story Machine, TAILOR, and “Through the Park” nubs are ready for research, teaching, creative practice. codeberg.org/nickmontfort...
codeberg.org
Remainder of the line. This option is provided, the value is.
Directly, but should instead call git rebase.
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Reposted by Nick Montfort
Center for Digital Narrative @cdn-bergen.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
73 years after Roald Dahl warnings and Christopher Strachey's generated love letters, @newyorker.com asks what about AI slop is actually new. Featuring quotes from CDN's @docmofo.bsky.social and Lillian-Yvonne Bertram's OUTPUT book: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
The Prehistory of A.I. Slop
Before ChatGPT, there was the Plot Robot, Auto-Beatnik, and a century’s worth of schemes for automating authorship.
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
◯🖌️ A pond and a frog Are one A pond and a frog and a sound Are nothing
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
My own plan will probably be to work on tiny projects in e.g. BASIC, 6502 assembly, Perl, Python, andor projects that relate to the reimplementation of symbolic storytelling systems from the past 60 years
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Deadline extended to March 25! Come join us at this nonprofit nexus of creativity, in a program unaffiliated with any AI company, to work with language & computing. Projects in English, French, & Spanish welcome www.banffcentre.ca/programs/lit...
banffcentre.ca
Computational Writing 2026
Explore the intersection of computing and literary art, not only by using pre-developed tools but also by directly undertaking programming.
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
On NLG specifically, I of course hope the book @lillianyvonne.bsky.social & I put together is helpful mitpress.mit.edu/978026254981...
mitpress.mit.edu
Output
The discussion of computer-generated text has recently reached a fever pitch but largely omits the long history of work in this area—text generation, as it...
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
I also have an article about the project overall (this book and the website and museum installation manifestations) nickm.com/articles/Mon...
nickm.com
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Published today, with US sales through Printer Matter rrose-editions.com/portfolio/pa... www.printedmatter.org/catalog/70507
rrose-editions.com
Patsy Baudoin & Nick Montfort “Rubrique Technologie / Tech section”
RRose Editions, 2026 Edition of 200 copies. Bilingual French / English. 184 pages. 12 x 19 cm. Printed on Munken Print Cream 80g + 300g. ISBN : 978-2-9586199-9-2 « Rubrique Technologie / Tech Section ...
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Deadline to apply is March 11! Come to this self-directed September residency at Banff w/ me, @lillianyvonne.bsky.social & Kalen Iwamoto www.banffcentre.ca/programs/lit...
banffcentre.ca
Computational Writing 2026
Explore the intersection of computing and literary art, not only by using pre-developed tools but also by directly undertaking programming.
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
I'm one of five who has each written briefly on this topic for LARB lareviewofbooks.org/article/artific…
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Reposted by Nick Montfort
MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
We often think of computers as numerical devices, but part of the history of computing is also found in how computers manipulate language. "Output" showcases seven decades of English-language machine-generated texts, long predating ChatGPT: mitpress.mit.edu/978026254981... @docmofo.bsky.social
Hands holding a copy of "Output: An Anthology of Computer-Generated Text 1953 - 2023" edited by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram and Nick Montfort on a plain background.Open pages of "Output" on a plain background. The left page reads: i've never picked a protected flower
Everest Pipkin, 2018 

A paragraph of text is included over an image of a Unicode poem. The right page features an image of another Unicode poem.
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
At UNESCO World Headquarters in Paris, the Source Code exhibition features 15 influential items — including a 12-byte bash script by security researcher lcamtuf & a forgotten contributor
I contributed curatorial text about the shell script :(){ :|:&};:Organizers of the exhibitThe first hall has posters focusing on history & society
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Reposted by Nick Montfort
tetrismegistus @tetrismegistus.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
The Word-Unit Palindrome (repeats by word, not character) that @docmofo.bsky.social nominated for my 2012 Ymmy — now animated. #algorithmicArt #WordUnitPalindrome
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
Apply before March 11 for this AMAZING* residency at Canada’s Banff Centre, where @derekbeaulieu.bsky.social is director of literary arts! * I’m biased, but — @lillianyvonne.bsky.social and I were at the first one; Kalen Iwamoto’s work is awesome www.banffcentre.ca/programs/lit...
banffcentre.ca
Computational Writing 2026
Explore the intersection of computing and literary art, not only by using pre-developed tools but also by directly undertaking programming.
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Enjoy my screensaver-like artwork “A Series of Tubes” nickm.com/poems/tubes.... More info on this is at the PIKSEL25 site. It will be in this festival that starts tomorrow 25.piksel.no/projects/a-s...
Pipe-like, tube-like Unicode characters in different colors & in a gridPipe-like, tube-like Unicode characters in different colors & in a gridPipe-like, tube-like Unicode characters in different colors & in a grid
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Dead Alive seeks innovative manuscripts (including, no doubt, computer-generated ones) to publish in 2026 www.deadalivemagazine.com/calls/call-f...
deadalivemagazine.com
Call for Books 2026 — Dead Alive Press
Dead Alive Press seeks experimental books, electronic literature, art objects, and cross-genre works for 2026 publication. Open until November 2026.
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
This year I won’t make it! Hope it is great for all, though
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
I must go east or west, but I cannot decide
Orphée, CocteauThrone of Blood, Kurosawa
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
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...
spectrum.ieee.org
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.
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
www.jstor.org/stable/42945...
jstor.org
The Disnarrated on JSTOR
Gerald Prince, The Disnarrated, Style, Vol. 22, No. 1, Narrative Theory and Criticism (Spring 1988), pp. 1-8
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
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...
nickm.com
Start Me Up
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
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
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Reposted by Nick Montfort
jörg piringer @jpiringer.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
happy to be in this wonderful anthology of coded poetry edited by @docmofo.bsky.social
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
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...
nickm.com
Start Me Up
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
I placed this text in a file named “o” (lowercase letter o). Any guesses as to why?
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
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;
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
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 "
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
Bad Quarto is pleased to present a new artistic & poetic booklet with short programs and their output badquar.to/publications...
badquar.to
Run Run Run
A zine with short text-generating computer programs and their outputs.
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
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...
jacket2.org
Poetry Has No Future Unless It Comes to an End: Intelligent Artifice and the Poetics of Artificial Intelligence | Jacket2
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
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...
doi.org
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...
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
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.
codeberg.org
frag
Generate a text by using a Markov process on a specified file
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Reposted by Nick Montfort
Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
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
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Reposted by Nick Montfort
MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
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-...
news.mit.edu
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.
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
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
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Reposted by Nick Montfort
anjchang @anjchang.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
"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
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
In France they say “un café allongé” It’s an americano in Toronto #poem
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
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.badquar.to
Taper #14
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
An MIT publication with some coverage of my general concerns & recent work betterworld.mit.edu/spectrum/iss...
betterworld.mit.edu
The Art of Computer Programming
MIT professor Nick Montfort SM ’98 brings poetry and computer programming together with artistic results
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Reposted by Nick Montfort
Jill Walker Rettberg @jilltxt.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
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...
jobbnorge.no
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
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
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!
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Nick Montfort @docmofo.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
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...
eventbrite.com
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!
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