A visual storytelling project using AI-generated imagery, editing, art direction, and animation concepts to illustrate the word transformations in Tom Lehrer's public-domain song “Silent E.”
The Project
With the Silent E project, I explored a different form of AI-assisted creation. My challenge was to build a coherent visual world around Tom Lehrer's song “Silent E,” whose humor depends on transforming words by adding a final silent E.
Individual transformations became miniature visual narratives, including concepts such as: tub → tube, cap → cape, glob → globe, dam → dame, Sam → same, pin → pine.
![[Placeholder: Word transformation before/after image pair]](images/pic08.jpg)
Human Direction, AI Generation
I generated the images with AI tools, directing every step of the process. The work included:
- Interpreting each word transformation visually
- Deciding which literal or comic interpretation would work best
- Maintaining character and visual continuity
- Rejecting generated images that did not support the intended joke
- Editing and compositing generated material
- Developing recurring settings and characters
- Timing imagery to the music
- Researching copyright and public-domain considerations
- Assembling the final work into a coherent video presentation
![[Placeholder: Character continuity example across transformations]](images/pic09.jpg)
AI-Assisted Authorship
I offer this project as an example of AI-assisted authorship in which generation is only one part of a broader creative process involving concept development, selection, revision, editing, and final artistic judgment.
The same principles that apply to AI-assisted software development — strong human direction, deliberate selection, iterative refinement, final human judgment — apply equally to AI-assisted visual work.
Demonstrations
Watch the finished Silent E video on YouTube: Silent E.