Overthinking Machine

Overthinking Machine is an interactive visual experience that explores how a single thought can quickly spiral into something overwhelming. The project begins with a simple action where the user types a short thought. From there, the system takes over and gradually duplicates that thought across the screen. As time passes, the words begin to move, rotate, and change in size, creating a buildup that becomes harder to control and read. The motivation for this project comes from my own experience with overthinking as a student. Small thoughts often grow into something much bigger and harder to ignore, even when they start out as something minor. I wanted to take that internal feeling and make it visible in a way that others could experience. Instead of explaining overthinking, the project allows the user to feel it happening in real time. The main design question I explored was how visual and interactive elements can represent a mental process like overthinking. I focused on progression and pacing, making sure the system starts calm and becomes more chaotic over time. Through this project, I learned that the way something builds over time is just as important as the visual effects themselves. I also learned how structuring my code into separate classes helped manage complexity, similar to what I worked on in object oriented design before. Organizing the thoughts and their behavior this way made it easier to control multiple elements at once and experiment without breaking everything.