Experiments with Midjourney, exploring stylistic blends using inputs from Dalí and Cy Twombly, with an underlying thematic interest in consciousness. Very much quoting Terence McKenna in the prompts and seeing what these internet-trained machines will output visually in terms of consciousness?!

I was surprised by how expressive some of the results were. It took some time to move away from the rubbery, shiny ad sheen that tends to coat a lot of auto-generated imagery. The more interesting results started appearing when I began combining things that don’t usually mix cleanly. Having a computer attempt tactile mark-making, things like ink, pencil marks, paper texture, and grit, elements that feel physical and imperfect, gets weird in a good way.

I was curious to see how Midjourney would interpret abstract expressionist, material-driven approaches, less about making the thing look like the thing, and more about looseness and subjectivity. For me, bringing Twombly into the mix aunlocked achaotic energy that helped break the outputs away from the more classic representations and pushed them toward far more interesting weirdness.