Painting by words. Yet another tangent.

[Pavlos Maros]

This is going to be a tangent that’s a little off the wall perhaps. As we were discussing AI in our last tangent this is basically the subject but it is about certain AI program image creators like Mendalla uses. What came to mind this time was you have to provide a written prompt for it to generate an image. Which got me thinking how much info does it need to create an image. So I decided to test my theory, I took a very famous image The Fighting Temeraire (1839) by JMW Turner and not giving it any clues like the title or the name of the artist, I gave it this prompt:

“A large pale warship with tall bare masts being towed by a small dark steamboat across calm water, golden sunset sky with soft clouds, misty atmospheric lighting, romantic painting style.”

Now the image is no Turner but it isn’t half bad considering. With a little more tweaking on the prompt it could probably create a Turner-esque image.

What struck me though was that this experiment suggests something bigger. A painting like The Fighting Temeraire doesn’t just live in its title or its artist’s reputation. Its essence can be boiled down to a kind of visual grammar that still carries across when you strip away context. The art program with no knowledge of Turner or the ship, could still generate an image that felt recognisable. That says a lot about how scenes are structured in our minds, how light, composition and subject matter combine into something iconic.

Of course it couldn’t capture Turner’s loose brushwork, his hazy atmosphere, or the bittersweet emotion of an old warship being towed to its end. Those are uniquely human touches. But the bare bones of the image survived translation into pure description. and as said who knows with a little more tweaking on the prompt what could be created. That fascinates me. It makes me wonder whether we could reconstruct other famous works in the same way. Imagine describing a woman with a half smile in front of a winding distant landscape, would the program unknowingly conjure something close to the Mona Lisa?

Maybe this shows that what we think of as cultural masterpieces also live in a deeper layer of human perception, one that can be encoded in words, shapes and moods. And that is exactly what makes this tangent worth chasing down.

What do you think.

(I put the picture it created below)

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

I think it’s a lazy way of “painting”. I’ve tried it and most of it’s come out pretty dark, even with “happy” adjectives. Some not bad but dark. I don’t consider it real art though. It’s just filler. Time filler, visual filler, play, whatever, but it’s not art. That takes understanding of colour and light and perspective; and it takes actual skill not just the ability to describe what you’d like and “presto”. Vending machine “art”? It’s not art it’s junk. Some of the junk comes out looking ok.

When you said Painting with Words, I thought of the writer Jack Kerouac, because of how he used his words to write books. But using a few descriptive words to instruct AI to create visuals and call it real art rather than just goofing around, is an insult to artists. It atrophies the creative muscle. It’s another threat to human civilization and the strength of human mind. Also it’s not like digitally created background beats to support a song - it’s the whole piece. So it’s junk. Uncultured, unskilled, boring af.

Again, it frees up time for humans to do what instead? Efficient art? f*** that. That’s one thing that certainly doesn’t need to be efficient.

Then again if disabled people can’t paint … it’s cool. That’s why I tried it. Can’t use my disability as an excuse. I just can’t paint and I was curious. But I’d rather try abstracts than call the detailed AI stuff art. I used to know a quadriplegic person who painted detailed work with her mouth. That took skill and patience. It’s ok to use digital tools and medium for your own creations - but art totally done by AI, humans shouldn’t take credit for. It should be clear that AI was asked to do it, at minimum, and that all the human did was give commands.

It’s becoming clear that in 10 years it could replace artists and the pursuit of human creativity in an increasingly dystopian landscape.

Artists don’t always know where their work is going when it starts. It’s not always specific. It evolves, morphs. This is just insta-visuals.

 

[Luce NDs]

I worked with Santiago El Grande for years ... Patron Saint Jimmy, a toasted spirit of mediated Pa Zion ... it still blossoms in my head m'n ... going round and round as Jimmy ... buffeting winds? Like it or hate it your choice ... and then Patel ... and a power mess! Always need of a moderator ... that always seems to counter what wishes to stand up alone ...

Business, politics and belief all counter the other ... leaves one in that sentient state ... that ther e has to be more than this and then Santiago emerges as the road of soul ... rough to say least ... as the Office of the nation wishes to reduce intel ...

Did you see the CNN article on the showpiece the Office and the corrupt forces there where the boss takes all the credit and more if he/she can? Then 9 to 5 rings in my head ... beyond those hours other concerns too deep for the Office management syndrome ... and so folk cannot be allowed to show what they can produce on their own?

I disturbed some of my management what enigma's I resolved when clear of office noise ... a gift? A term when a person can process and think of critical matter(s) ... and whether it matter a bit to powers ...

Then take the word John as common and hom*moe and all the metaphors of vernacular production that the upper crust takes as threat to position ... without appreciation of where you'd be without that ground of being ... like a rod, staff, stem, pillar of the blossoming ... that's oul ... if you can relate and reckon ... cotton to the spin. etc. Then 9 forms of abstract dems dah MU's ... a buzz? The stuff that bugs ... like onus ... taking responsibility for your part ...

Then someone tries to run it out ... yee gods ... Titans or tight ends! Titanic cinque Ur ... how it comes down after the rise ... will the ringer be dead-head? Much depends ... work at it ... put your all into it soul, body and spirit until exhausted ... then rest a bite in the shadow of those wings ... al bat ross? "Ross" was once a head-land ... dark (G) and os-sum ...

Life cycle ... as ET? Then it starts again ... like Finnegan's Ca+ ... critical to ganglia ... and mysterious as ... EL?

That's Ur ... is the water overhead ... o' lymph IHC ... a part of the complex! Poorly comprehended ...

 

[Luce NDs]

The things you cannot tell because of pious receptions ... RuAH? Where is LGK?

I bet that M'N stirs ... as a MU's ... alien thing the mental processor ... real folk of emotive hate it ... disseminating bas ... what?

Stirring ... brewed or Br. Ute ... Ute Awe? Takes a term to set in ... Like night Through Black Spruce ... stemmy ... Emmett's ... them's antis ... the reckoning ... small things ... appreciate!

 

[Pavlos Maros]

I think it’s a lazy way of “painting”. I’ve tried it and most of it’s come out pretty dark, even with “happy” adjectives. Some not bad but dark. I don’t consider it real art though. It’s just filler. Time filler, visual filler, whatever but it’s not art. That takes understanding of colour and light and perspective; and it takes actual skill not just the ability to describe what you’d like and “presto”. Vending machine “art”? It’s not art it’s junk. Some of the junk comes out looking ok.

When you said Painting with Words, I thought of the writer Jack Kerouac, because of how he used his words to write books. But using a few descriptive words to instruct AI to create visuals and call it real art rather than just goofing around, is an insult to artists. It atrophies the creative muscle. It’s another threat to human civilization and the strength of human mind. Also it’s not like digitally created background beats to support a song - it’s the whole piece. So it’s junk. Uncultured, unskilled, boring af.

Again, it frees up time for humans to do what instead?

Then again if disabled people can’t paint … it’s cool. But we know that in 10 years it could replace artists and the pursuit of human creativity in an increasingly dystopian landscape.

Artists don’t always know where there work is going when it starts. It’s not always specific. It evolves, morphs. This is just insta-visuals.

I paint as a hobby, Kimmio. Have done all my life.
So to you any person painting with light is suspect? Anybody using CAD? Digital photography? Where exactly do you draw the line between 'real art' and technology-assisted creation?
I think there might be some crossed wires here, it sounds like you're responding to concerns about AI art in general, but that wasn't what I was exploring.
I was curious about visual communication itself, whether you can break down a famous image into words and get something recognizable back out.
It's more like a linguistics experiment than an art project. I wasn't trying to make art or replace artists, just testing how much visual information we can actually encode in language. The fact that it worked at all says something interesting about how we see and describe things, regardless of you fear or feel about AI-generated images.

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

Yeah just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, too early. I’m a bit snippy. Overwhelmed by how not hopeful the worlds feeling lately.

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

I worked with Santiago El Grande for years ... Patron Saint Jimmy, a toasted spirit of mediated Pa Zion ... it still blossoms in my head m'n ... going round and round as Jimmy ... buffeting winds? Like it or hate it your choice ... and then Patel ... and a power mess! Always need of a moderator ... that always seems to counter what wishes to stand up alone ...

Business, politics and belief all counter the other ... leaves one in that sentient state ... that ther e has to be more than this and then Santiago emerges as the road of soul ... rough to say least ... as the Office of the nation wishes to reduce intel ...

Did you see the CNN article on the showpiece the Office and the corrupt forces there where the boss takes all the credit and more if he/she can? Then 9 to 5 rings in my head ... beyond those hours other concerns too deep for the Office management syndrome ... and so folk cannot be allowed to show what they can produce on their own?

I disturbed some of my management what enigma's I resolved when clear of office noise ... a gift? A term when a person can process and think of critical matter(s) ... and whether it matter a bit to powers ...

Then take the word John as common and hom*moe and all the metaphors of vernacular production that the upper crust takes as threat to position ... without appreciation of where you'd be without that ground of being ... like a rod, staff, stem, pillar of the blossoming ... that's oul ... if you can relate and reckon ... cotton to the spin. etc. Then 9 forms of abstract dems dah MU's ... a buzz? The stuff that bugs ... like onus ... taking responsibility for your part ...

Then someone tries to run it out ... yee gods ... Titans or tight ends! Titanic cinque Ur ... how it comes down after the rise ... will the ringer be dead-head? Much depends ... work at it ... put your all into it soul, body and spirit until exhausted ... then rest a bite in the shadow of those wings ... al bat ross? "Ross" was once a head-land ... dark (G) and os-sum ...

Life cycle ... as ET? Then it starts again ... like Finnegan's Ca+ ... critical to ganglia ... and mysterious as ... EL?

That's Ur ... is the water overhead ... o' lymph IHC ... a part of the complex! Poorly comprehended ...

That’s an incredible piece of art. Wow. Looking at that regularly would be something.

 

[Luce NDs]

I paint as a hobby, Kimmio. Have done all my life.
So to you any person painting with light is suspect? Anybody using CAD? Digital photography? Where exactly do you draw the line between 'real art' and technology-assisted creation?
I think there might be some crossed wires here, it sounds like you're responding to concerns about AI art in general, but that wasn't what I was exploring.
I was curious about visual communication itself, whether you can break down a famous image into words and get something recognizable back out.
It's more like a linguistics experiment than an art project. I wasn't trying to make art or replace artists, just testing how much visual information we can actually encode in language. The fact that it worked at all says something interesting about how we see and describe things, regardless of you fear or feel about AI-generated images.

But if the artificial takes over and makes the human too restful to take advantage of the time to show care ... Icarus us off as if driven out by the 3 mercenary powers that oppose sharing ... them against the Duo ... thus we fade ... the Coddling of America (the west) .. they feel no pain in the surrounding support system ... anaesthetised ... by comfort easing them to ends ... KISS it ... another ONE (individual estate) goes down ...
It is quite a work the end Stephanie ... as should be a crown, or laurel! Bit prickly subject ... like Snoop's Spike ... mate?

 

[Pavlos Maros]

Addenum to my original post: This little experiment was never about replacing art or artists. It’s less an art project than a linguistic one. I wasn’t trying to make art, only to test how much visual information can be packed into words. The fact that it worked at all says something interesting about how we see and describe the world around us.

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

I paint as a hobby, Kimmio. Have done all my life.
So to you any person painting with light is suspect? Anybody using CAD? Digital photography? Where exactly do you draw the line between 'real art' and technology-assisted creation?
I think there might be some crossed wires here, it sounds like you're responding to concerns about AI art in general, but that wasn't what I was exploring.
I was curious about visual communication itself, whether you can break down a famous image into words and get something recognizable back out.
It's more like a linguistics experiment than an art project. I wasn't trying to make art or replace artists, just testing how much visual information we can actually encode in language. The fact that it worked at all says something interesting about how we see and describe things, regardless of you fear or feel about AI-generated images.

Tools to contribute to it, are different from getting a bot to do the whole thing. I make crappy art myself using digital tools in an analogue manner. I’m perfecting my own style of something.

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

It is interesting that you were able to get something that close, yes @Pavlos Maros

 

[Pavlos Maros]

Just for fun Luce I used this prompt "Muscular nude male rider with arms stretched upward in victory pose mounted on white horse, surrounded by enormous geometric wheel structure with multiple radiating spokes and circular elements, complex architectural framework in perspective, brilliant blue sky with clouds, painted with photographic realism, sense of spiritual triumph within cosmic order, horse and rider as focal point of elaborate geometric mandala, classical proportions combined with surreal scale and setting." to see what it would make of Salvadors work. and considering Dali's surrealist nature. it got the right idea. even if it isn't like Dali's

 

[Pavlos Maros]

Tools to contribute to it, are different from getting a bot to do the whole thing. I make crappy art myself using digital tools in an analogue manner. I’m perfecting my own style of something.

There is art in everything. Whatever you do it will be artistic.

 

[Luce NDs]

There is art in everything. Whatever you do it will be artistic.

Such is creation ... the theist does not control it ... it is out of our hands ... but theists do despise the alien ... all that we do not know! Then the stranger of Gal Lily ... toxic and yet healing in the right dose? Such is the light in the darkness ... like a candle in the wind ... could blow out and could rage ...

Have you ever read into some of Picot's novels ... like A Spark of Light? Imagine that in the depths of an edifice ... temple term? It is like a spell in the soul of a M'N ... imagining that the strongest have a soul ... raising questions about the Office ... just a position for the Pall over humanity? Gentile now it is delicate ... like nitroglycerine ... pyrotechnics in the head man if he is a dead head? Mankind is such a sad story given the mood about critical learning ... often trashed ... prodigal?

Camp Bells ... if treated kindly would they have to be bound? Remember the brute nature of the grasping for life ... taking it from everywhere ...protagonist? What's agonist ... vs antagonist ... part of the immune system ... thus we are lulled ... by a complexity we show no appreciation for ... dulled or Dallas a post ... stimuli as apocalyptic ... and there it starts ... a gin?

Myths go on and on around the bend ... as Wayne ... Weiner ... omega Dan einer ... like Einstein? Crock ...denying Ur ... what a code to get Ur out of sight ... Ψ qui? What' Sthat ... the question is muted ... under the lid ... its tall ... Icon ...

 

[Pavlos Maros]

Just been messing about and wrote this prompt. "Turbulent night sky filled with large swirling spiral clouds, bright yellow crescent moon and stars with dramatic radiating beams, dark towering cypress tree dominating left foreground like a flame, small village nestled in valley with prominent church spire, rolling hills, entire composition painted with thick visible brushstrokes in energetic patterns, predominantly deep blues with bright yellow accents, sense of movement and energy throughout, post-impressionist style with heavy paint application" and got this. It seems that Van Gogh is the best yet.
This is probably because Van Gogh's genius is more embedded in describable visual techniques, the swirls, the thick paint, the energetic patterns, the colour relationships. These are concrete elements that translate well into words.

 

[Luce NDs]

Just been messing about and wrote this prompt. "Turbulent night sky filled with large swirling spiral clouds, bright yellow crescent moon and stars with dramatic radiating beams, dark towering cypress tree dominating left foreground like a flame, small village nestled in valley with prominent church spire, rolling hills, entire composition painted with thick visible brushstrokes in energetic patterns, predominantly deep blues with bright yellow accents, sense of movement and energy throughout, post-impressionist style with heavy paint application" and got this. It seems that Van Gogh is the best yet.
This is probably because Van Gogh's genius is more embedded in describable visual techniques, the swirls, the thick paint, the energetic patterns, the colour relationships. These are concrete elements that translate well into words.

Even a song out of the mystery of what dah Nacht ... or trough Black Spruce as a prickly instigation ...

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

Just been messing about and wrote this prompt. "Turbulent night sky filled with large swirling spiral clouds, bright yellow crescent moon and stars with dramatic radiating beams, dark towering cypress tree dominating left foreground like a flame, small village nestled in valley with prominent church spire, rolling hills, entire composition painted with thick visible brushstrokes in energetic patterns, predominantly deep blues with bright yellow accents, sense of movement and energy throughout, post-impressionist style with heavy paint application" and got this. It seems that Van Gogh is the best yet.
This is probably because Van Gogh's genius is more embedded in describable visual techniques, the swirls, the thick paint, the energetic patterns, the colour relationships. These are concrete elements that translate well into words.

Yeah that’s pretty close.

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

I put in this passage by Jack Kerouac

edited out the passage. It’s depressing. The image is less so.

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

It could be worse. I just wanted to see how AI art interpreted those classic abstract words. But it doesn’t quite do them justice. That said, it looks more pleasant than I thought it would come up with.

 

[Luce NDs]

I put in this passage by Jack Kerouac

edited out the passage. It’s depressing. The image is less so.

View attachment 11728

Avatar ... floating stones ... iconic view from the abstract wandering ... remnant of ELi jah/sha ...

In the Fundy region there are formations like this called flowerpots ... some have recently collapsed ... blossoming sighs in tide and time ... time halts?