Weird Little Algos: A conversation about creativity, computation and "AI Slop"   

  Host: Dr Cameron Edmond

  Thursday 16 April 2026, 6.15pm – 7.30pm 

  Theatre G25, Michael Kirby Building, 17 Wally’s Walk, Macquarie University

Overview

We’ve all seen it. An image with too many fingers. A video that doesn’t quite feel right. Or maybe just a really weird episode of a TV show that made us look at each other and say “Wait…is this AI?”. But it doesn’t have to be this way. 

Although Generative AI might be racing down a path of human mimicry, the world of AI-generated books, poems and more has a long history. And it’s a lot more wonderful than you might think. Dr Cameron Edmond dedicated his studies to understanding the worlds and rhymes machines have been making from the 1600s to now. Come with him on a journey through wandering bots in love, surveillance-dodging Markov Chains and Jane Austen re-written via Twitter. 

The histories, techniques and poems of the DIY-algorithmic bards that pre-date the current world of LLMs reminds us that computation and art can go together in strange, beautiful ways. By the end of it, maybe you’ll want to make your own Weird Little Algo. 

Biography

Dr Cameron Edmond is a Senior Lecturer in Game Development at Macquarie University. He specialises in novel and community-focused teaching practices to empower students to find their voice within games, software and computational creativity. 

Dr Edmond’s other research interests include machine writing and the ethics of artificial intelligence. He maintains a creative practice as game designer and experimental poet "Uncanny Machines". 

Contact Us

For more details about the series, contact us at fse.outreach@mq.edu.au.