For this week, I wanted to test how far AI coding has gotten just from this past year by one shotting a prompt and seeing how well the AI can replicate something.
I found this on https://showcase.p5js.org/#/2022-All/visual-synonyms/ and wanted to make something similar
Finding a Reference
Rather than just prompting with words, I wanted to feed the AI an example of an image for it to get a better sense of what I was looking for. I found a sketch on the p5.js showcase that takes a user input word and generates levels of synonyms from that word. However for my iteration, I wanted to create something that forms into an evolving poem. Prompting with AI I then fed the reference image to ChatGPT, asking it to write a prompt and this is what it gave me:
🌱 Project Prompt: “Evolving Poem” – Branching Word Galaxy
Concept: “Evolving Poem” is an interactive p5.js sketch that begins with a single user-entered word at the center of the screen. From this seed word, related words branch outward in a galaxy-like structure, forming a dynamic poem that grows over time. Each new word is connected visually to the one it emerged from, creating an expanding semantic network — almost like watching language bloom in real time.
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🧭 User Experience (UX): • On load, the canvas is empty except for a subtle cursor or prompt. • User types a single word (e.g., “happy”) and presses Enter. • The seed word appears centered on the canvas. • Over time or through user interaction (e.g., click), new words branch out from the seed in different directions. • Users can click any word to trigger further branching from that node, allowing the poem to grow infinitely.
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🎨 Visual Style: • Black background with white or lightly glowing text. • Each word is connected to its parent by a thin glowing line, giving the effect of a constellation. • Words are positioned radially around their parent with random but gentle spacing, creating an organic look. • Subtle animations: • Words fade in smoothly. • Lines “draw” themselves as if growing outward. • Optional slow orbiting jitter to make the structure feel alive. • Highlight the active node (the most recently grown word) with a slight glow or color shift.
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🧠 Behavior & Logic: • Related words can come from: • A predefined dictionary list (for offline use), • A synonym API (e.g., Datamuse), • Random poetic word lists (for surreal effects). • Each word is stored as an object with: • x, y position • parent reference • children array • When a node branches, its children are placed at random angles around it with a set radius.
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✨ Stretch Goals: • Clicking a word highlights its branch and collapses or expands it. • Use color or opacity to encode branch depth (closer to center = brighter). • Add soft ambient background audio or typing sounds as the poem grows. • Option to export or screenshot the final network.
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🪐 Think of it like a poetic star map — words are the stars, and their connections form the poem’s invisible gravity.