Forty-Four Esolangs: The Art of Esoteric Code
A riveting collection of one artist’s many approaches to esolangs—esoteric programming languages—showcasing the form’s limitless artistic potential.

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. 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 simply consider or perhaps to implement on their own.

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. The language Velato, for instance, asks programmers to write music as code; while the language creates constraints for the programmer, each programmer brings their own coding and musical sensibility to the language. Other pieces are pure poetic suggestion in the legacy of Yoko Ono’s event scores. These ask the programmer to, for example, follow the paths of the clouds over a single day and construct a language in response that uses those movements as code. Just as Ben Vautier claimed everything is art, this book blurs the lines between computation and everything else.
1146743809
Forty-Four Esolangs: The Art of Esoteric Code
A riveting collection of one artist’s many approaches to esolangs—esoteric programming languages—showcasing the form’s limitless artistic potential.

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. 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 simply consider or perhaps to implement on their own.

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. The language Velato, for instance, asks programmers to write music as code; while the language creates constraints for the programmer, each programmer brings their own coding and musical sensibility to the language. Other pieces are pure poetic suggestion in the legacy of Yoko Ono’s event scores. These ask the programmer to, for example, follow the paths of the clouds over a single day and construct a language in response that uses those movements as code. Just as Ben Vautier claimed everything is art, this book blurs the lines between computation and everything else.
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Forty-Four Esolangs: The Art of Esoteric Code

Forty-Four Esolangs: The Art of Esoteric Code

Forty-Four Esolangs: The Art of Esoteric Code

Forty-Four Esolangs: The Art of Esoteric Code

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Overview

A riveting collection of one artist’s many approaches to esolangs—esoteric programming languages—showcasing the form’s limitless artistic potential.

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. 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 simply consider or perhaps to implement on their own.

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. The language Velato, for instance, asks programmers to write music as code; while the language creates constraints for the programmer, each programmer brings their own coding and musical sensibility to the language. Other pieces are pure poetic suggestion in the legacy of Yoko Ono’s event scores. These ask the programmer to, for example, follow the paths of the clouds over a single day and construct a language in response that uses those movements as code. Just as Ben Vautier claimed everything is art, this book blurs the lines between computation and everything else.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780262384049
Publisher: MIT Press
Publication date: 09/23/2025
Series: Hardcopy
Sold by: Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format: eBook
Pages: 136

About the Author

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. You can see his work at danieltemkin.com.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Through the lens of magical realism, Forty-Four Esolangs delves into the improbable and impossible of language design. Serving as both a window into the wild world of esoteric programming languages and a philosophical daydream on the nature of code and communication, this is a work of startling technical curiosity and profound poetic beauty that will leave you pondering the uncharted avenues of language design and swirling with ideas to explore on your own.”
—Sy Brand, esolanger (Vizh, Enjamb, li1I); poet (Cloud Picker); author (Building a Debugger)

“This is a book inspired as much by Calvino, Perec, and Fluxus as it is by any programming manual. Daniel Temkin brings humor and humanity to his examinations of language and its proliferating outcomes. At a time when most thinkers position code in opposition to human creativity, Temkin’s 'prompts' invite us to play with the possibilities of meaning in the way that all the best art does.”
—Nayland Blake, artist; Guggenheim Fellow; Co-Director, Studio Art Program, Bard College

“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.”
—Douglas Coupland, artist; author of Generation X and Microserfs

Esolangs reveals what it would be like if Yoko Ono, Guy Debord, Sol LeWitt, Harryette Mullen, and Georges Perec had written programming languages. Every text is a program, and every program here is exemplary.”
—Craig Dworkin, Professor of English, University of Utah; author of No Medium

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