Show HN: Silent Poems – Visual expression of unspoken thoughts

121 points · laviniap · 11 days ago

An interactive digital art project that turns typed text into flowing, abstract animated symbols. The symbols connect fluidly, much like handwriting, but in an entirely abstract way. Each letter has its own design, and then each instance of the letter has a different seed such that you have slight differences - the same as with handwriting.

27 comments

AstroJetson · 10 days ago

This was fun, I liked playing with it.

I'd like to ask for a feature that I can pass a query string

wwww.silentpoems.net?poem=How+do+I+love+thee%3F+Let+me+count+the+ways.+I+love+thee+to+the+depth+and+breadth+and+height+My+soul+can+reach%2C+when+feeling+out+of+sight+For+the+ends+of+being+and+ideal+grace.

and have the poem rendered. That way I can send poems to my beloved.

myfonj · 10 days ago

I think it could be neat to leverage ligatures, i.e. preceding glyph could either affect the seed of the next or even make different "cursive" connecting swashes. Words could become pictures with individual "glyphs" blended together.

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smusamashah · 11 days ago

This is so beautiful. The animations are dynamic, love how every single letter animates dynamically making itself different even if repeated.

Minor problems unless they are intentional: I can't hold on a key and let it type e.g. can't press and hold backspace to clear all text.

When reached at the end, can still type but the text becomes invisible. can't scroll and see that.

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sroussey · 11 days ago

Does not work on mobile (can not type)

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westcoast49 · 10 days ago

I imagine this could be sold to upscale hotels or concert arenas, for display on a big screen in a reception area or foyer.

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