“Reciter(s)” by Po-Hao Chi (Taiwan)

browser-based sound, participatory art, speech synthesis, Max/MSP, network performance, generative systems

Reciter(s) is a browser-based sound system that turns mobile devices into a dispersed polyphonic speech ensemble. The work explores collective listening and the aesthetics of desynchronization through web-native tools.

Reciter(s) is a browser-based sound system that transforms mobile devices into a dispersed polyphonic speech ensemble. A central framework—developed with Max/MSP, a lightweight server, and a web front-end—distributes algorithmically recomposed text fragments to each connected browser in real time, triggering native speech synthesis across dozens of phones, tablets, or laptops.

The piece embraces timing differences and hardware diversity, allowing latency, voice variation, and desynchronization to become performative. Rather than correcting these deviations, the system foregrounds them as sonic and spatial phenomena.

Reciter(s) will be presented at the Diversonics Festival at C-LAB in Taipei (Oct – Nov 2025). Visitors can experience the work simply by opening a webpage on their own devices and joining the distributed recitation network—no app or installation required.