drawing.garden

drawing.garden is a browser-based artwork created by Minneapolis media artist Ben Moren in April 2020. Built with p5.js, it turns a simple field of squiggles into an interactive garden of randomly generated emoji plants and creatures.

Moren introduced the project while looking for a little positivity. Rather than a conventional drawing app or game, it's a small creative experiment that combines digital gardening with generative music.

You start with a brown, soil-like field covered in squiggles. Click to enable sound, then move your cursor across the page. Each patch you pass over becomes a random emoji, from flowers and trees to mushrooms and vegetables, accompanied by a short synthesized note.

Occasionally, bees, butterflies, snails, and other small creatures appear among the plants. Moving over the same spot changes it again. There's no score or ending, and reloading the page lets you start a fresh garden.

Most drawing tools let you choose what to create. drawing.garden gives you control over where things grow, but chance decides what appears. Your movements become a collaboration between deliberate drawing and randomness.

The same gestures also generate a loose melody, making the garden a simple musical instrument. Even the browser tab's icon changes to match the latest emoji, adding one more unexpected detail to the experience.

drawing.garden shows how a simple browser interaction can become both visual art and music. With nothing more than cursor movement, random emojis, and synthesized notes, it turns an ordinary webpage into a playful creative experience.