An e-mail came that I got into the Midjourney Beta, and I promptly used up all my free trial GPU time playing around with different wordings for a soviet-era inspired plant computer situation. Here’s the initial back and forth between Midj (as I like to call it because it is my creative partner) and myself:

I started out with some pretty condescending stuff like “soviet plant computer” or “soviet plant machine poster” but Midj took it lightly and had some fun with me before I got round to “soviet botanical plant computer” and “soviet computer made of plants”. After getting to know each other this way for a bit, we finally started fleshing out some ideas we both liked.

Sadly, this was where my GPU time ended before I could explore more complicated prompts. And of course, now I desperately want to keep going and am considering subscribing — that’s how they get you!

Seriously though, and on a more useful/professional level: I keep thinking about how often I have images in my mind for illustrating certain thoughts I have, research I am doing that is not documentable by photography, or other abstract stuff related to my work. I do like drawing, but it takes time and sometimes, you have a vision that is not draw-able.

Or more importantly, and more interestingly: Sometimes you have a vague vision, and you know what you’re looking for, but not quite exactly. This is where Midj feels like a somewhat eccentric partner in crime.

I keep seeing before my inner eyes how much more visual material I could have for better communication support of more theoretical or abstract parts of what I’m working on or teaching, and I think Midj would be extremely valuable for that part of my work (and also take far less time than drawing).

All pictures above are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International, by the way!