E.L.I.:Nomad Documentary Premiere
Thursday, April 6 at 8:00 PM
ICE (Tanner Building Room 101)

Please join us for the premiere of E.L.I.:Nomad, a short video that documents the exploits of E.L.I.,
a poetry-generating robot, and Ben Coolik and Christian Croft, two UGA graduates who
accompanied E.L.I. on a tour of the United States in 2004. Ben Coolik will be present to introduce
the documentary, which lasts approximately 20 minutes.

E.L.I., or Electro-Linguistic Imaginator, is a mobile computer module that moves about unlikely
environments speaking randomly generated poetry in exchange for new vocabulary words for his
database. Developed at the Kitchen in New York by artists Christian Croft (B.F.A., Digital Media),
Ben Coolik (M.F.A., Drama), and Todd Shalom, a graduate student at the California College of Arts
and Crafts in San Francisco, the project has grown from a prototype to a touring phenomenon
called E.L.I.:Nomad.

E.L.I. has navigated crowds and made impromptu public appearances throughout the Southeast
and Midwest, with notable encounters at sites of mass public protest. In addition to being tear-
gassed, surveilled, and removed from the Mall of America, E.L.I. has been featured at the Kitchen
Street Festival in New York and the International Digital Media and Arts Association IDEAS
exhibition and conference.

ICE is very proud to be a key supporter of E.L.I.: Nomad.