3AM (2023)

:: Slow Down Time - Video Experiment #06 ::

A collaboration with artist/ researcher/ curator James Carey and the Midjourney bot.

The prompt James posed was a private moment, an observation perhaps, but a feeling all the same: "Monday morning 3.37am / Lover / Pining." On the Midjourney side, no further stylistic and technical parameters were used to amplify the prompt. The RunwayML frame interpolation process was used to blend 22 images from the 3AM series into a 01m 35s sequence.

Procedural Notes

What is interesting about this series of images is that they have been lifted from two separate threads, generated, firstly on October 12 and then again on November 8, 2022. Both of these threads began with images of streetscapes, as indicated by the first frame in this video. What is fascinating, is the algorithm's tendency towards the ambiguous image, suggestive of both a physical and emotional presence.

The image construction is evocative of an entanglement. Are they two figures leaning towards each other? Or is that a phoenix or a dove swelling between them in the early AM light? And while the second sequence might suggest two bodies entangled on the sofa - replete with typical Midjourney disjointedness of hands and arms folding over one another - however, the resolution of the sequence is a solitary figure sitting on a bed ... pining.

Reference Links

Project Site :: Slow Down Time
James Carey, 3AM series :: http://slowdowntime.com/james-carey/

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