I don't think that making or using AI art/image generation is morally wrong, as you guys know, but I have to admit that slotting a wibbly-lined low effort image selected from the first result set from Midjourney in your content is incredibly tacky. At least select something that looks good. Maybe something without the boring AI "sheen" look either.

You see this a lot in clickbaity content like web spam and youtube shorts attempting to algorithm game.

Research Study: Fandom & Generative AI still looking for participants!

I'm still recruiting research participants for my PhD dissertation study!!! If you've already participated, thanks so much! If you haven't participated yet, please consider responding to a quick survey, and sharing with your friends!

I'm interested in understanding fans' perspectives on and experiences with generative AI (text and image generation software). That means perceptions both positive and negative! However you feel about genAI, I'm interested in hearing from you. We're especially seeking diverse perspectives from underrepresented demographic groups of people.

If you're over 18, can speak/understand English, and are interested in participating you can learn more information and take the survey here. I've also made a FAQ post about the study that I've pinned to the top of the blog, and you can see more info on the shareable flyer below. You can also view posts on Twitter/X, Bluesky, and Reddit about the study and share info there! Spreading the word is greatly appreciated :)

The study is anonymous and voluntary, and you'll be asked about your fandom background, attitudes towards generative AI, and demographic information. The survey should take about 15-20 minutes, and you can skip over any questions you want. You can also elect to participate in a follow up interview, if you want to. The full details are on the consent form, which you'll be able to read before taking the survey! Feel free to reach out with any questions.

the church of the unknown compute, wires, religious, Dutch angle, dramatic, napoleonic, fractalline

as generated with the above text prompt with neural network ai art program midjourney (nijijourney 6)

using a piece of abstract generation as the style reference and another as a "character"

Collective memories XIII, 7

The term “collective memory” denotes the aggregate of memories, knowledge, and data that a social group holds, which is intrinsically linked to the group’s identity. The term “collective memory” in English and its French counterpart “la mémoire collective” emerged in the latter half of the 19th century. Maurice Halbwachs, a philosopher and sociologist, further developed this concept in his 1925 work, «Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire». Both expansive and intimate social collectives can create, disseminate, and inherit collective memory.

Contrary to the term “collective memory,” which is somewhat ambiguously defined yet generally accepted, the notion of “collective memories” is inherently problematic. Memories are the results of the individual acts of recollection, making the idea of “collective memories” paradoxical. Сontemporary diffusion models utilize vast amounts of often unidentified data, including historical and personal old photographs, vintage postcards, and other kinds of publicly circulating images. These models may be seen as involved in the prompts-driven singular acts of remembrance, producing images that paradoxically represent “collective memories,” something otherwise unfeasible and ultimately, non-existent.

AI Is Not A Replacement For Other Mediums

Today I saw a notification for a comment on my post about my reading group pointing out that the Eiffel Tower didn't exist during the period of the Paris Commune and how that shows that AI art is dumb.

I'm not mad at the person making the comment, but for me at least, that oddness, that offness, that wrongness created by the Robot’s crowd sourced impressionistic inexactness is part of what I like about AI art, part of the reason it is the medium I chose for this project. We live in a society that's increasingly alienated from the “hands on” aspect of things, which leads to an ever increasing sense of floating unreality. This feeling of alienation is best expressed through the weird randomness of AI art, additionally many AI image generator’s vast data sets feel like a sort of connection to a collective unconscious of the internet, where “of course Paris means the Eiffel tower regardless of history because there is no time there, only image and association”

The images of myself, as a beruffled male “damsel in distress” and even the images of calmer or happier scenes are pervaded by the surreality of existence in the present unprecedented moment, where centralization of power and the vast surveillance apparatus of private business and the state are both ever present and irrationally mechanized to the point where systems are layers deep and not fully understood by anyone working on them.

If I didn't specifically want the specific feel of AI Art that wouldn't be the method I employ to create these.

an eye in the dark

anime wallpaper the dark, the dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, light blue, dark, in the style of colorful pixel-art, hyperspace noir, disintegrated, analog video effects, rollerwave, shot on 70mm

as generated with the above text prompt with neural network ai art program midjourney (nijijourney 6)

playing with the new "character reference" feature of midjourney, except using a piece of abstract generation as the "character"

directed under the code of ethics of @are-we-art-yet

anime wallpaper the dark, the dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, light blue, dark, in the style of colorful pixel-art, hyperspace noir, disintegrated, analog video effects, rollerwave, shot on 70mm

as generated with the above text prompt using a sister image of this as a style reference with neural network ai art program midjourney (nijijourney 6)

directed under the code of ethics of @are-we-art-yet

more PEZ dispenser prompts at different weights in Simple Stable Diffusion....

DEATH BY DANDELIONS

inspired by a poem i wrote (contains body horror)

generated with the prompt "plucking out dandelion seeds from your skin" with a style reference from an earlier piece using ai art synthesizer Midjourney (Nijijourney V6)

under the code of ethics of @are-we-art-yet

kenotic - i felt like a hole in the wall of the world

anime wallpaper the dark, the dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, light blue, dark, in the style of colorful pixel-art, hyperspace noir, disintegrated, analog video effects, rollerwave, shot on 70mm

as generated with the above text prompt using a sister image of this as a style reference with neural network ai art program midjourney (nijijourney 6)

directed under the code of ethics of @are-we-art-yet

Posted this on my main where I am more obviously obsessed with dead napoleonic frenchmen, but yeah this is with gpt-4-turbo-preview, first one at temp 2, last one at temp 1.5

What I'm referencing when I talk about ChatGPT getting Really Fun earlier - I don't think that was the result of a high temperature, it'd be cool to recreate it but I don't actually know how that happened

But it's been a while since I fucked with temperature like this, and it's nice to see GPT-4 can still just drift off into disconnected word nonsense

I should get back to messing with local LLMs

I missed the window earlier today where ChatGPT went fucking nuts so I'm recreating it manually by going to the API where I still have credits left over from earlier projects and jacking up the temperature setting

oh yes thats the good stuff right there

wait do i see a nicolas in there

squints

anime wallpaper, the light, the light, light, light, light, light, light, light, light, light, light, light, light, dark blue, light, in the style of colorful pixel-art, hyperspace noir, disintegrated, analog video effects, rollerwave, shot on 70mm

as generated with the above text prompt and some additional ai art style references using ai art image synthesizer nijijourney version 6

prompt being an altered version of this one

directed under the code of ethics of @are-we-art-yet

the internecine forest

neogeo pixel art, a forest full of broken and rusted weapons like swords and guns and muskets and spears and tanks and cannons stabbed in the ground, the internecine forest, old battlefield, under a moonless night, dark fantasy concept art, otherworldly, dreamlike

generated with the above prompt, a few style references of earlier ai art and image prompting through iterations to capture this scene with this style, with ai art neural network generator midjourney (nijijourney v6)

directed under the code of ethics of @are-we-art-yet

Highly stylized movie still, blend of live action and superimposed illustrations. Walking through the dark streets of a monochrome noir city, a crowd of dark silhouettes, some humanoid but others alien and monstrous, walk through the city. Some of the silhouettes are outlined in bright vivid colours, making them stand out from the crowd.

as generated with the above text prompt using ai art image synthesizer nijijourney version 6

directed under the code of ethics of @are-we-art-yet

let the gears stop turning for a bit

generated with ai art neural network image synthesiser Midjourney (Nijijourney V6) with a style reference prompt of this earlier ai generated image and the text prompt “a woman subsumed by wires, cyberpunk neogeo pixel illustration, detailed, divine, holy, computer angels, neural networks”

under the code of ethics of @are-we-art-yet

draconic dissolution

a young dragon with scales of iridescence, glitchcore corruption, pixelated abstraction, radiant clusters, contax tix, greeble, colorful explosions, hyperspace noir, celestialpunk, neogeo, disintegrated, anime wallpaper the dark, the dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, light blue, dark, in the style of colorful pixel-art, hyperspace noir, disintegrated, analog video effects, rollerwave, shot on 70mm

as generated with the above text prompt using ai art image synthesizer nijijourney version 6

directed under the code of ethics of @are-we-art-yet

draconic dreaming

a young dragon with scales of iridescence, glitchcore corruption, pixelated abstraction, radiant clusters, contax tix, greeble, colorful explosions, hyperspace noir, celestialpunk, neogeo, disintegrated, anime wallpaper the dark, the dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, light blue, dark, in the style of colorful pixel-art, hyperspace noir, disintegrated, analog video effects, rollerwave, shot on 70mm

as generated with the above text prompt using ai art image synthesizer nijijourney version 6

directed under the code of ethics of @are-we-art-yet