Search Currents
A generative artwork that turns search-trend data into a field of flowing particles and vortices.
What it helps with
Search trends describe collective attention as a chart. Search Currents asks what the same signal feels like as motion: stronger topics pull the field harder, while related currents overlap and disturb one another.
What was built
The browser prototype maps trend-shaped data into particle flow fields and vortices. Six sliders change the visual behaviour, deterministic seeds make a composition reproducible, and the result can be exported as an image. The Rust and WebAssembly renderer is real; the data layer can fall back to mock or feed-shaped data, so the case does not promise an always-live trend connection.
What made it different
The project is data art, not a new search interface. It gives an abstract public signal a visual character while preserving enough determinism to revisit or compare the result. That tension between living motion and reproducibility is the interesting part.
Data art becomes easier to trust and revisit when the same input and seed can reproduce the same image.
What it demonstrates
- Trend-shaped flow fields
- Six live visual controls and deterministic seeds
- Browser rendering and image export