Daniel Temkin: "Forty-Four Esolangs" Talk

​Museum of the Moving Image presents the first public program for Daniel Temkin’s new book Forty-Four Esolangs (2025, MIT Press). Temkin will discuss the project in conversation with poet and software engineer Allison Parrish in the Museum's William Fox Amphitheater.

​In Forty-Four Esolangs, Temkin challenges conventional definitions of language, code, and computer, presenting esolangs as idea-based art. The languages in this volume ask programmers to write code in the form of prayer to the Greek gods, or as a pattern of empty folders, or to type code in tandem with another programmer, each with one hand on the keyboard, their rhythm and synchrony signifying computer action. Temkin includes languages written over the past fifteen years, along with some designed especially for this book. Other pieces are left as prompts for the reader to consider or to implement on their own.

​This program is presented as part of Open Worlds in conjunction with Temkin’s exhibition Dither Studies: A Contentless Dithering System, currently on view at the Museum's Schlosser Media Wall. Seating is limited.