A Midjourney into AI's Imagination

Yesterday I was finally accepted into the private beta of Midjourney.

It's an artificial intelligence application that can generate images from words.  Yes, seriously.  It can make photorealistic (kind of) images, copy the styles of famous painters, create illustrations, and produce enough nightmare fuel to last a lifetime.

I kept thinking how it was generating cool 1960's sci-fi book covers, or old LP album art.  So, after trying all sorts of crazy mashups of ideas, I thought about how it could be used to conceptualize or storyboard an idea.  So I decided to try entering some some lines and stanzas from an Emily Dickinson poem.

It started off great, but then the images started to become more modern, so I had to adjust the words,  usually by adding "Victorian" into the mix.  Here's the result, each image took about a minute to generate.

I've added captions under each image with what words I used to generate the image.  If two images have the same caption it's because the system generates 4 images from whatever is input into it, and well, sometimes it creates multiple awesome images.

"Because I could not stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death —
He kindly stopped for me —

The Carriage held but just Ourselves —
And Immortality.

We slowly drove — He knew no haste
And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility —

We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess — in the Ring —

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain —
We passed the Setting Sun —

Or rather — He passed Us —
The Dews drew quivering and Chill —

For only Gossamer, my Gown —
My Tippet — only Tulle —

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground —

The Roof was scarcely visible —
The Cornice — in the Ground —

Since then — 'tis Centuries — and yet
Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity — 

Creepy eh?  Some images look like they are old photos, but not quite.  Usually faces are distorted which adds to the mystery.  I sort of recognize some of the photos, such as the Victorian school children. I've seen photos of child mill workers and it looks like that's an influence for the AI.  It's also interesting that "carriage" had the AI produce railroad tracks.

I enjoyed playing with Midjourney, and even bought a month subscription so I can mess around with it some more.  I recommend you try it out, you'll be blown away.