The Word Left Behind Takes Later Strokes

Words pass by from the edges of the screen. Keep pressing on one of them, and it stops at the position it occupied at that moment; the pointer cannot drag it, and releasing will not return it to the original flow. The word left behind remains readable, but from this moment on, it is also a boundary made of strokes.

The words that pass by later do not go around this boundary. The strokes that intersect it are cut off and left inside the saved glyph; the remaining parts keep moving, and do not recover after leaving the intersection. The image therefore preserves two mutually corresponding things at once: the strokes gradually accumulating at the place of retention, and the incomplete words still receding into the distance.

The work runs continuously by default. A long press of about half a second can leave behind a word that is passing through; a short touch does not change the state. Press R to restart with the same seed, and press S to enter a deterministic still composition.

What is saved here is not only the content presently in view. Once a word has acquired the right to stay, it also begins to determine what shapes words that have not yet arrived can still take as they pass through. If saving must be paid for by later arrivals surrendering part of their completeness, is “seeing clearly and keeping” still a harmless act?