:: Slow Down Time - Video Experiment #02 ::

A study in AI portraiture using the text-to-image service Midjourney in collaboration with writer and journalist Jennifer Perkin. The prompt she posed was a question - "How do I know if this is real?" No further stylistic or technical parameters were used in the prompt parameters. Aspect ratio was set at the default 1:1.

Procedural Notes

By blending the images into video (using RunwayML’s frame interpolation), as the algorithm iterates through layers of noisy abstraction the composition evolves across three distinct stylistic threads. The entire sequence is composed of 125 unique images.

Clearly visible in the orb like faces are landscapes, sunsets, cracked earth, valleys and occasionally hints of a baking cityscape - even a stack of old newspapers. In two frames a small figures briefly appears.

In total, for this prompt, 265 images were generated over several days comprised in October 2022. The compositions that emerged from this simple query of the algorithm included Escher-type architectures, strange neon chambers, ghostly figures drifting down a deserted apocalyptic street and in one peculiar outlier thread, what seemed like a rolled-up length of pillows in the shape of a icy cave.

The images featured in this video permeated from the very first four-grid image output in Midjourney - an abstract portrait of a female, with an orb-like visage of liquid glass (or burning lava?) and a bob of black hair. After 80+ iterations the hair morphed into two faces in profile looking out to the edges of the frame.

The internal orb also changed to express synergy between these two "minds" - roots, branches, valleys, stars and finally in the last frame where I stopped the process, tears. As if a sadness had emerged - was reality no longer shared? Or was it mourning that the two could not really be as one, staring off in separate directions.

Reference Links

Project Site :: Slow Down Time
Jennifer Perkin :: http://jenniferperkin.com
Jennifer Perkin, Reality Check series :: https://slowdowntime4.wordpress.com/jennifer-perkin-2/