A Midjourney's Night Dream
My first encounter with Midjourney's graphic creation. It was a surreal stroll through that place where new things have a fancy feel and everyone is still dreaming.
Last week I jumped onto Midjourney to try out my hand at creating a few images. I was lucky to stumble upon "Midjourney’s Office Hours.” Filled with 1900 others listening in, the chat ranged from curious to inspiring as I loaded up on references to obscure Math books and poetry from tech pioneers…
Mathematical Circles: A Russian Experience by Dmitri Fomin (Author), Sergey Genkin (Author), Ilia V. Itenberg (Author)
All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace
I like to think (and the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.
My first prompt was “ChatGPT looking at me in the reflection of the universe getting to know itself.” In general, Artificial Intelligence reminds me of that one dimensional functioning that is so familiar. The loop of an overly active mind. The one I have little control over.
As I entered the prompt and waited for the image to populate, the images of everyone else entering their prompts… It’s all right out there in the open, so we can see the work of others in the channel. The images ranged from comical adaptations, to surreal versions of mushroom trips, to realistic creations that looked like folks were creating an ad graphic for one or another social media feed. The voices of the Midjourney hosts trickled away in the background and the tick of images streamed.
Was this an act of cooperative art? I was at once watching others creations, listening to the conversations of those inspired by all this creativity and myself waiting for what I had created.
It was somehow reminiscent of 2000 when I sat with my little Fujitsu laptop searching through forums and webpages. It was a connected world. We didn’t know what those tools 23 years ago would evolve in to but I found myself studying everything as if it would be gone that next day.
Now 23 years later, it’s not gone. Technology is no different than at any other time in our history. Another exploration, another version of clicks, ticks, and connection. In every moment, I’m reminded that there is a screen there in front of me, not to fall asleep but to wake up. Why type, why click, why tick? Information, content, connectivity is and always has been in some way here to support us.
How will you receive it?