Something just changed…
‘Nature consuming the human mind’ - Created (by me?) on a computer in less than a minute.
So I had a play around with Mid Journey last week, which for those that don’t know, it’s an image generating artificial intelligence or AI, and the results are pretty astonishing.
I can see why it has a lot of people talking.
For starters, you input a string of text and within a minute it will produce four original images based on that text. You can tweak, upscale and try again, with endless new images appearing on screen.
Choose any style, choose any artist you like and it will create based on those inputs.
My initial thought was, this changes everything.
For all this unleashed creativity, it felt like a creative light had been somewhat dimmed. A big call I know.
No longer is any skill required to produce an incredible image. For years creating a certain styles of images was beyond my reach, because I hadn’t invested the time and energy required to learn certain techniques or programs.
Are we now we entering the age of mass replication and imitation. Will certain styles and techniques lose their impact as they become mass produced. Will we appreciate the things we see a little less?
The main way I’ve always created images is using a camera. It’s a skill and technique I’ve learned over months and years. My photography might not be anything special, but I can appreciate the time and energy that other artists have put into their own style and work. Actual lifetimes spent perfecting their art. Plagiarism? What’s that?
What does this tech do to all the digital creators out there? Do they fall by the wayside? Lose their jobs?
A niche they occupied may no longer exist. For those that work with the tech, using it to further push the limits of their creativity, the limits to what is possible are about to be blown away. Adapt or die (or fall by the wayside).
No doubt new niches will be created. They might not resemble anything we’re familiar with today.
It is incredibly fun. In a pokie machine addictive sense. The randomness of the output and the limitless possibilities of letting your mind run wild and create is something else. It’s new, and I can see how quickly adoption will occur once it becomes easier to access through mainstream channels (currently it’s only available in discord).
It’s weird. The technique you need to learn is how to communicate clearly with the algorithm. There’s loads of threads on reddit and discord on how to achieve a certain technique. If you are aiming to achieve a certain style or look, you need to find the prompt that will produce that. That’s how you become an ‘artist’.
Input > Output (right image created in seconds by Moi! and my super intelligent assistant)
One thing it does make you do is look into certain styles of art more to try and find the distinct look you’re going for. A different way of imagining. It’s not perfect, a lot of the images still have a certain look to them. Text and hand detail aren’t quite there yet. But this is the tip of the iceberg with what’s to come. Text to video, GPT4, etc, etc… This technology is increasing at an exponential pace, no one knows where it will be in one, five, ten years time.
Things feel like they’re about to get real weird, real fast.
On the level of expressing an idea, it is expansive.
If there’s a theme or idea I’m trying to communicate, the AI can help with that.
The images produced by the prompts here probably all look similar in the sense that they’re exploring themes of nature, the human mind, technology and birds.
For a nature and landscape photographer, there’s no denying it feels strange to use. You’re still working with a medium, but the medium is completely digital. The creative flow remains in the digital space. No more going out into nature with a camera.
And that’s the one thing that is missing for me. The creative process and everything involved in it. The first thing I did after playing around with Mid Journey was get up early for sunrise and take photos, purely for the enjoyment.
Maybe, and I think this will be the case for me, there will be a premium placed on work that is created by a human.
An original painting, a live musical performance. The seed that makes something human - imperfect, real, felt, seen and touched - analog, biological - still currently retains a distinct feel to it. For how long that lasts, who knows.
The roll out of AI will bring a lot of things into question - what is art? what is nature? what does it mean to be human?
Where does this all end?
If you create purely to create, for the enjoyment of the creative act, AI might be another tool to explore. It can be used to compliment your expression. I don’t see it as good or bad, but is is different. You can choose to ignore it, and it probably won’t affect you at all. Maybe your current workflow will seem inefficient in the future.
I’ve barely skimmed the surface here with what is possible, these AI images were all created in a couple of days of learning the process and playing around. I’ve seen results where you can’t tell whether it’s a photograph or a generated image.
An actual image I took, not generated by AI. Or is it….
Maybe, like it was for me, the tech might be a positive catalyst to reconnect with nature.
As this comment on a reddit post put it:
“Bingo. People are already waking up to the fact that they need to spend more time feeling their bodies and getting out into nature. This will just accelerate that process.” - earth_worx