field:work | Poetry in Computation (Machine Madlibs)

​What happens when code and computational processes become part of writing a poem or short story?

​At a moment when generative AI has become a source of anxiety, resistance, and polarized debate—particularly among writers and creative practitioners—Machine Madlibs offers a space to encounter these systems critically through playful experimentation.

​Developed by Kapilan Naidu, the workshop uses simple language games to pull apart some of the processes behind Large Language Models. We’ll prompt, intervene, swap words, and see what happens. Sometimes it’s clever, sometimes absurd, and sometimes it misses the point entirely.

​Rather than asking whether AI is “good” or “bad” for writing, we’ll treat the machine as material: exploring questions of authorship, meaning, and what these systems reproduce, flatten, or distort. We’ll also discuss wider concerns around training data and consent, labour, environmental costs, privacy, and the dominance of large platforms, alongside locally run and open models as alternative ways of working with AI.

​No prior experience with generative AI, coding, or writing is needed. Bring a laptop or tablet, and a willingness to mess around with language.

​Poetry in Computation is a series of artist-led sessions within field:work, exploring algorithms, generative language, and computational approaches to writing.