AI generators are at their best (and most entertaining) when you serve up an abstract concept and ask them to dream up imagery. You never know what you’re going to get!
When I was preparing my overview of 2024, I turned to Midjourney and gave it the prompt, “Imagine saying goodbye to 2024.” The resulting image set was so fascinating that I had to share them in an AI Party post.
It’s useful to remember that generative AI runs on models that have been trained with vast amounts of data, and all of that data, of course, is produced by us human beings. In that way, the results that AI dreams up are a mirror for our collective culture, reflecting the thoughts, moods, conflicts, and belief systems connected with the topic in question. I found it fascinating how many of these graphics had a spiritual aura. I figure that training data connected with religion and death must have informed those photos. Others were downright apocalyptic! That felt appropriate for 2024, given the inflammatory rhetoric we heard during this election cycle. Here are the highlights, with some fun commentary.
If I had to give this one a title, I’d call it “Worlds Collide.” Midjourney’s AI was certainly tapping into our pervasive fear that our annihilation would result from a massive celestial object slamming into the earth. Though, is that the earth hurtling down toward earth? That’s inventive! R.E.M.’s song, “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” would be a terrific accompaniment to this! Photo wildly dreamed up by Midjourney.
I call this one, “Into the Beyond.” Somehow the connotation of “saying goodbye” with a little boy leaves me heartbroken. I don’t even want to ask who is the one departing. Photo wildly dreamed up by Midjourney.
I call this one “Rocket Man.” Maybe the Midjourney Bot is a fan of Elton John, too! An astronaut seems rather out of place in this setting (most likely inspired by Times Square). Though, given the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple, not to mention the Naked Cowboy (one of Times Square’s most famous denizens), it seems likely that an astronaut in full regalia would fit right in! Perhaps it’s inevitable that an astronaut would pop up with a prompt related to 2024, given the two NASA astronauts who were (and still are) stranded on the International Space Station after their shuttle experienced issues with helium leaks and thrusters. Photo wildly dreamed up by Midjourney.
I want to dub this one, “Dream of the Fire.” The landscape looks inhospitable—even volcanic, ablaze with fiery ashes—and yet, I think the fellow standing on that precipice can handle it. To my eye, he looks like a misplaced nineteenth century adventurer, boots up to the thigh, cane in hand. Photo wildly dreamed up by Midjourney.
I call this one “The Only Path Forward.” Plainly, the subject isn’t enthused with her limited options. She has found herself in a place that is angular and bleak, and the door before her opens into a dark unknown. I can easily identify with that feeling. The decision to self-publish The Sower of Black Field felt a lot like this! Photo wildly dreamed up by Midjourney.
My recommended title: “Will This Ever END?” Honestly, whenever I turned on the news and heard the onslaught of election updates, 2024 felt downright interminable. I love the indignation and impatience in this woman’s face. That bright, sunflower yellow is a lovely suggestion that she’s hoping for bigger and brighter things when it’s all said and done. I know I am! Photo wildly dreamed up by Midjourney.
I dub this one “Insight.” Perhaps “Self-Reflection” would also be fitting, given how the iris and lashes are mirrored in the inky lake below. LOL… Don’t ask me. I really don’t know where Midjourney got the idea to generate a gigantic eyeball. This is hilarious and disturbing at the same time. Photo wildly dreamed up by Midjourney.
