Entangled Verses: Quantum Simulations and Computational Poetics

Join us Thursday 4/3 at 4:30pm ET for "Entangled Verses: Quantum Simulations and Computational Poetics" with AADHum faculty member Andrew W. Smith.

ABSTRACT ::

In this talk, Smith investigates the affordances of quantum computing as a method for creative writing. Drawing from the practice of utilizing Markov Chains in computational poetry, Smith’s research reimagines poetic structures through the lens of quantum mechanics, leveraging principles such as superposition, interference, and entanglement to produce dynamic, probabilistic language.

Using IBM’s Qiskit platform, Smith constructs a custom quantum system in which each word is mapped to a quantum basis state, and poetic relationships are encoded through a series of quantum gates—including Hadamard (H), controlled-Z (CZ), controlled-controlled-Z (CCZ), and rotation gates (RX, RY, RZ). These gates govern not only which words are likely to appear, but also their relations to one another, reinforcing or suppressing semantic patterns across a 512-dimensional state space.

The talk will address both the technical design of the system and its broader conceptual implications, arguing for quantum mechanics as a speculative framework for literary expression. By translating poetic constraints into quantum logics, Smith’s research proposes new approaches to human-computer cowriting — ones that are nonlinear, entangled, and open to collapse. In doing so, it offers a provocation for the future of electronic literature, where language emerges not from deterministic rules but from the strange probabilities of quantum computation.

SPEAKER ::

Andrew W. Smith

Visiting Assistant Research Professor, AADHum | University of Maryland, College Park

Andrew W. Smith is a Visiting Assistant Research Professor at the University of Maryland College Park where he works with African American Digital and Experimental Humanities (AADHum) and the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). His research is support by a fellowship from Arts for All, as well as a Quantum x ArtsAmp Grant through which he investigates potential applications of quantum computing to creative practices. Smith’s work brings immersive and interactive technologies such as games, archival and interpretive websites, digital collage, AR, and VR into conversation with topics such as memory, environmental futures, Black life, and virtual worlds. His work has appeared in Urgency Reader 2, The New River, salt.codes, Voidspace, and SUPERJUMP. His recent projects include Anti-Temporal Letters, Solidarity Book Project, LiteraryDJ, and Energy.

EVENT ::

Digital Dialogues convenes prominent digital humanities, new media, and information technology practitioners to present on their field-defining research. The series invites intellectual exchange around topics critical to the digital humanities.

Learn more at mith.umd.edu/digital-dialogues and follow us on social media (@umd_mith on X/Twitter & and @mith_umd on Instagram).