Forty-Four Esolangs: Book Talk with Daniel Temkin

Join us the STUDIO on Monday October 6th at 5:30 PM for a book talk by Daniel Temkin

In Forty-Four Esolangs, Daniel Temkin challenges conventional definitions of language, code, and computer, showing the potential of esolangs—or esoteric programming languages—as pure idea 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. Esolangs are a collaborative form. Each language is a complete world of thought, where esoprogrammers build on the work of esolangers to make new discoveries. Temkin will share projects from the book in the context of thirty plus years of esolang history, showing the poetic possibilities of this medium. As Douglas Coupland puts it: “Every new spread in the book makes a reader feel like they’re discovering new territory with a worthy explorer who’s there for the joy of it.”

Bio:

Daniel Temkin makes photographic and computational art exploring logic and human irrationality. He began interviewing other esolangers and code artists in 2011, creating the blog esoteric.codes. ZKM exhibited the blog and commissioned videos of Temkin explaining esolang history for their Open Codes show in 2018–19. Esoteric.codes earned an ArtsWriters.org grant and a residency at New Museum’s NEW INC, the first museum-led cultural incubator. Temkin has written about esolangs for Hyperallergic and Leonardo, and his aesthetic theory of the form was published by Digital Humanities Quarterly. His work has been exhibited widely and is in the collections of Buffalo AKG Museum, the Thoma Collection, Spalter Digital Art Collection among others. You can see his work at danieltemkin.com.