oulipo.xyz

A kitchen laboratory of experimental computational poetry by Halim Madi. Non-human poets, anti-gravitational word interfaces, somatic semantics. This is where I break and mend things.


Featured Works


Non Human Poets

Got scam? An AI trained on scam emails generates new poetic frauds. The language of deception becomes absurdist verse.

AI-Generated Poetry

Scam AI Poet screenshot

Border/line

Robert Coover Award Winner 2024

Hostile immigration questions float across the screen while "No" checkboxes flee your cursor. The interface becomes the border.

Step 1 of 4

Identity fragments as the interface demands assimilation. What parts of yourself must you delete to pass through?

Step 2 of 4

The body stretches toward belonging. Reaching across digital space mirrors the migrant's perpetual extension toward acceptance.

Step 3 of 4

A countdown: 299 days until your documents arrive. The excruciating temporality of bureaucratic limbo rendered as interface.

Step 4 of 4


Somatic Poetry Sandbox

A browser-based performance reimagining human-AI relations through viral transformation. Dropdowns, tabs, and carousels become poetic scaffolding.

Interactive HTML Poem

We Called Us Poetry screenshot

An interactive canvas where mouse movements trace semantic connections. Each click draws threads between floating words.

Generative Poetry

Phenomenal Fields screenshot

A war memory disperses on hover. Words scatter like shrapnel when approached, then slowly reassemble.

Kinetic Typography

Hover screenshot

Your cursor leaves a trail of red dots across the Wikipedia entry for Nakba. Reading becomes marking, marking becomes witnessing.

Interventionist Poetry

Red Trail screenshot

Words flee from your cursor like startled animals. A meditation on joy's elusiveness—the harder you chase, the further it scatters.

Responsive Typography

Fleeting Joy screenshot

A playful typographic exercise where letters literally bend on command. Click and watch the word transform.

Animated Typography

Bend screenshot

An unfolding click-through poem about observation, bodies, and shame. Each interaction reveals the next line.

Sequential Interactive Poem

Blushing screenshot

Click "storm" and watch "brain" orbit chaotically. Compound words decomposed into kinetic metaphor.

Kinetic Word Play

Brainstorm screenshot

An interactive erasure poem after Kate Baer's "Re: Holding Police Accountable." Reveal hidden poetry by removing what's in the way.

Erasure Poetry

Erasure screenshot

An exploration of negation and identity. The interface refuses what it also invites.

Interactive Typography

Don't Be screenshot

A cataloguing poem about the infinite variety of experience. Lists as poetry, enumeration as meditation.

List Poetry

All Sorts of Things screenshot

After Jack Shaheen's "Reel Bad Arabs." A meditation on stereotypes, representation, and the violence of images.

Critical Poetry

Reel Bad screenshot

A branching poem about decisions and their consequences. Every choice closes one door and opens another.

Choice-Based Narrative

Choose screenshot

An invitation to conflict, a dare. The poem asks to be overcome—but can language ever truly lose?

Confrontational Poetry

Defeat Me screenshot

A kinetic poem about departure and movement. Letters scatter across the screen like travelers leaving home.

Migration Poetry

Hit the Road screenshot

A typewriter effect reveals text character by character—the intimacy of watching words appear as if spoken directly to you.

Typewriter Poetry

Typewriter screenshot

A digital reimagining of Sir Thomas Wyatt's 16th-century poem, where words scatter like the "they" who once sought the speaker.

With Leonardo Flores • After Wyatt