Syntactic Synthesizer (2025)

Every technologically mediated writing practice is a practice of writing under control. This is true for writing with a pen just as much as it is for writing with large language models. Commercial LLM interfaces, however, often present an anthropomorphized narrative by positioning the LLM as a disembodied chatbot, which has the power to adjust model parameters reserved for developers rather than users.

As a critical alternative to this paradigm, the Syntactic Synthesizer is an interactive installation that invites visitors to engage with LLMs through the traditions of electronic literature, constrained writing, and chance-based poetics. Taking the analog synthesizer and its role in the development of electronic music as inspiration, we ask if we could see an LLM as a physical instrument to be played rather than an abstract entity to be commanded.

Instead of the productivity-centered prompt-in, text-out interaction logic that dominates current LLM use, the proposed interface enables an iterative, hands-on process of assembling, splicing, looping, and editing. Users can turn knobs and press buttons to steer model parameters, such as memory horizon, semantic coherence, and text structure (e.g., number of lines and line length). Driving the calculations are adapted open-weights LLMs that run locally on the synthesizer. At the end of the session, the installation's embedded printer outputs a poem on perforated paper. Users can take the poems with them or pin them to the wall beside the installation, where they accumulate over time.

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Credits:  

Artists: Eugénie Desmedt, Paul Kloker, Marton Zalka, Christine Haupt. Production Assistance: Jonas Martschin. With thanks to Martina Mara and the Robopsychology Lab, Paul Janisch and Naoki Matsuyama. Funded by the State of Upper Austria