An experimental software developer and poet, Eran Hadas has unique accomplishments to his credit. Apart from building computer-based poetry generators, the Israeli has worked on creating a headset that generates poems from brainwaves, a documentarian robot that interviews people about the meaning of being human, and an artificial intelligence art curator. For those unacquainted with computational poetry, this may seem rather bizarre but today, Hadas will conduct a live session, presented by the Embassy of Israel in India, Consulate General of Israel in Mumbai, Literature Live! and Avid Learning, to deconstruct what the field entails and its future. Edited excerpts from an interview.

For those unacquainted with computational poetry, how would you best describe it and what drew you to the subject?
Most people think of it as a computer that generates poetic texts, and this is how I got into this field, trying to reconcile my passion for poetry with my practice as a software developer. However, I think that computational poetry does not require any computer. Any poem that involves more than just a direct expression of emotions has something to do with counting, measuring, comparing or randomizing. In the talk, I'll share how even lyric poems involve some computations.