For almost 500 days a new piece of art has appeared on my account every day. It started out just images, then I added a quote I created and recently a followup comment. Sunday, October 27th is the 500th day. Seems like a good time to talk about how the Daily Echo evolved.
Words are the root of all communication. Without them we'd be back to sign language and cave art to communicate. How often do you take a look at a word beyond knowing what it means in order to understand the sentence it's in? Most of the time, we hardly notice individual words, unless we're writing something we care about.
The Daily Echoes have me exploring beneath the surface on the words each echo starts with. Art expresses words in ways words can't always accomplish. It is a visual expression of thoughts, ideas, emotions and more. For me, creating images to reflect the meaning, both literal and metaphorical, of the Daily Echo words, the art helped me to learn at a much deeper level, the expression of the meaning.
The Echoes didn't start with the intention to be what they are now. They have evolved since that first image published back on June 14, 2023.
For a few years I've been running an email list, called Prompt A Day, sending out a group of prompts to creators every day. They are meant to spark curiousity and creative ideas.
One of the prompts each day is a single word.
When the Echoes journey started I was learning how to use the generative art engine, Midjourney. I decided to play around with generating images based on the single word prompt.
A single word didn't really give me very interesting images. I decided to stick with the idea but to experiment with what kind of images I could generate based around the meaning of the word. Those images were more interesting but not really 'speaking' to me. I also realized, not every word can be directly represented visually. That would limit my word choices.
That was my first lightbulb moment.
I went to ChatGPT and started working on a prompt that would give me the meaning of the word, the etymology, some interesting facts, symbolic and metaphorical usage of the word.
I started playing with creating image prompts. Now, this was getting really fun as a range of results started appearing. Maybe too much of a range. I decided I wanted to narrow the view.
I've always had an interest in personal development and spirituality. “This might be an interesting way to explore both subjects,” I thought. I revised the ChatGPT prompt to provide reference material that would resonate with personal growth and spiritual journey.
Part of the reference material I created is from a prompt to have AI generate a list of the elements I should have present in images to represent the word based on the criteria I give. I use the elements to create Midjourney prompts. Every day I create 100 or more images based on the prompts and variations I create.
Now I was getting a lot more images that fit into the range. Actually, too many I really liked. Now I was going to have to make a decision after combing through the images and selecting the ones I thought were closest to the word.
That's when the second lightbulb moment went off.
I created a new prompt for ChatGPT. This prompt would have me upload each image I liked, numbering each.
ChatGPT would respond giving me:
Once I uploaded all the images I would then upload a new prompt. It provides me with a comparative ranking of all the images for how strongly they represent the word and add a ranking for Personal Growth and another for Spiritual Journey.
Adding the rankings for Personal Growth and Spiritual Journey told me how strongly the image represented them and helped me to break ties when multiple images ranked 10/10 for the image.
Once I had the comparative ranking, I had my image of the day. Some days I went with the second or third ranked image if I liked it better and it ranked well.
You get the picture, I had an evolving system were AI was providing me assistance as I explored the word.
Several weeks later I was meeting with a friend and he made the comment to me that some days he doesn't 'get' the picture. He wasn't seeing the connection between the word and the image. My response to him was that art was subjective, he didn't have to 'get' them all. But, he got me thinking and yes, I had a third lightbulb moment.
I decided to start using the background material to write a quote, using the word that would reflect either personal growth, spiritual journey or both.
I wrote some more prompts to 'brainstorm' more about the word and the image from ChatGPT. All the data from the prompts was compiled into a master note in Obsidian, my notetaking software of choice. I would comb through the material building a much broader understanding of the word, how it was used and how it related to the image I'd selected.
I find using my iPad and pencil to write notes about the material helps me to integrate the material better than typing notes. Studies have shown the hand/mind connection does improving learning. As I work through the material my understanding of the word and it's different facets would deepens, giving me ideas about where I can focus to create a quote to illustrate the word and the image in words.
I started out calling what I was doing "Word of the Day". Toward the end of 2023 I started rethinking the name. It was becoming clear to me this was a project I enjoyed doing and wanted to keep doing.
The idea of 'echo' was something that resonated with me. It made me think of how I start with a single word and it echoes out into deeper understanding. I started 2024 naming my project "The Daily Echo".
Every month I use AI to generate the sets of prompts for my email list. The single word prompts become my list for the Daily Echo. AI has a tendency to repeat words on me, so I don't consider the list set until I have a list of unique words.
A rule I made for myself was to accept the word for that day no matter how unfamiliar I was with the word or how difficult an image might be to create. There are days my rule is tested and I get tempted. I've stayed the course and found myself learning new words, in new ways every week.
Writing a quote to capture a sliver of a topic is an interesting challenge. Especially when I stick to using the word in the quote. I'm conscious that my reader isn't likely to know the meaning of the word even when I use it in context.
It took a while, but, finally my fourth lightbulb went off
In August I started adding a followup comment to the quotes. The comment gave me an opportunity to elaborate on the quote in a more thoughtful way.
My use of AI as a brainstorming partner has grown and been refined over the last 500 days. I have a lot of material accumulated on each word. I even have feedback from multiply AIs on the quotes and followup comments I've created.
I can now comfortably build a reference note on the early words to incorporate the evolutions I've added to the project as the Daily Echoes have developed. The notes will be my base to work from as I write the reflections I'll be sharing. I'm looking forward to the challenge of writing them.
I know I've been learning a lot. Now I hope, I can share with you in a way that resonates for you. I welcome your feedback
Shadowspub writes on various subjects as she pursues her passion for learning. She also writes on other platforms and enjoys creating books you use, like journals, notebooks, colouring books, etc. Her Nicheless Narrative podcast airs on Thursdays each week.
NOTE: unless otherwise stated, all images are the author’s. AI generated images were in Midjourney, for which I hold a licence to use the images commercially.
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