Inspiration is a fickle thing. It can be found in the most mundane of everyday places and things. How many pieces of fruit have been lovingly captured in paintings and photographs? Fantastic pieces of art are made from literal garbage. Women have made blankets crafted from dryer lint. And yet there are times when finding inspiration can seem an impossible task. Creative blocks are the artist’s nightmare.
Playing with AI art can be helpful in overcoming these blocks. Any kind of play can spark creativity, and generating fantastical images is definitely fun. But what if you can’t even decide on something to try and generate?
It was this dilemma that led me to use the simple, very unhelpful prompt, “inspiration.” What follows is a gallery of images produced by seven different generators.
No fruit, but an intriguing variety of interpretations. The generators I used were (in order of appearance) DALL-E, Gencraft, Stable Diffusion, Fotor, Adobe Firefly, Canva and Midjourney. The images range from dream-like to graphically intriguing to strangely bland, with several stops in between. Female figures predominate. The images are generally colorful, but some are quite subdued.
AI-Generated AI Art
I would be remiss if I didn’t include Chat GPT in this experiment. Midjourney consistently creates beautiful images, which is what I was looking for, and it allows for fairly long prompts. I told Chat GPT, “I would like for you to create a prompt for Midjourney, based on the idea of ‘inpiration.'” It replied,
“Generate a visually captivating artwork that captures the essence of inspiration. Depict the journey from a spark of an idea to its full realization, portraying the transformative process and the emotions that fuel creativity. Use colors, shapes, and elements to evoke a sense of inspiration and the endless possibilities it brings. Let the artwork reflect the connection between imagination, motivation, and the art that springs forth from it.”
Chat GPT
I like these. I find them, well, inspirational. I love the bright colors and abstract feel. I’m fond of the continuation of female imagery, but I confess it’s the final image that really captures my imagination. I’m not sure what’s going on, which seems suitable for something created by AI, for AI. I see a glowing city and an even brighter moon, and some sort of clockwork contraption that appears to at least try to capture Chat GPT’s “vision.” Is this a visualization of a dream? It’s very dreamlike.
I don’t know that this experiment has relieved my creative block, but it gave me something to do for a while, and sometimes, that’s enough. Now, have some fruit.
