In April 2023, Midjourney released a feature that got us intrigued.
The famous AI platform has, since then, not only the capacity of creating images using the generative process we are familiar with, but it has also a new /describe function, which basically reverses that process.
Instead of generating an image from a text input, it creates a descriptive text from an image – and it does so with a depth and understanding that by far exceed those of other available tools.
For each image, it produces four paragraphs that may still contain errors, of course. AIs won’t be oracles. However, the descriptions generated by Midjourney frequently turn out to be funny, poetic, accurate, and even insightful.
Being so, why not apply it to the analysis of artworks?
That’s the main question behind our experiment “AI in Art Analysis”.
Truth be told, several objections could be raised, most of them based on the fact that humans and AIs “experience” art in different ways. Although we fully agree with that, there’s no reason not to explore the potential applications of this new technology.
Our exploration, on many levels, happened to be fruitful: Midjourney can indeed provide some interesting perspectives on the artistic realm.
If you’re skeptical about this last statement, let’s have a look at some interpretations it did.
The photo below depicts mine workers on a cliff. It’s a part of the “Serra Pelada” series by Sebastião Salgado, which shows the appalling conditions of these workers. For the AI, the photo is more strongly related to war themes.
This illustration by Sivan Karim was viewed as porcelain work.
A sculpture by Nick Doyle. Midjourney associated it to labels such as “layered gestures”, “restrained serenity” and “human connection”.
And what about this piece by Edmund de Waal, in which Midjourney managed to see a form of data visualization?
One of the most amazing things in art is that it’s subjective – each person interprets it in their own way. From these examples displayed here, it seems that AI has a unique approach to art too. It forms associations that, at first, might appear odd to us, yet they make some sense. These different perspectives are, indeed, non-human, but they can still be considered valid. At a minimum, it’s safe to say that AI has something to add to the art conversation, for instance by identifying aesthetic patterns and artistic movements. In a realistic scenario, AI could uncover aspects of art previously unseen by us.
But “AI in Art Analysis” isn’t only about asking AI to describe artistic creations.
We take these Midjourney descriptions and feed them into DALL-E, utilizing DALL-E’s text-to-image function. The results are fun to observe – it’s like having art reimagined by AI. Also, upon a closer look, we can see that DALL-E ends up reinforcing some key characteristics of certain works, thus revealing more about them and serving as a knowledge tool.
Below you will find some full Midjourney descriptions as well as the outputs generated by DALL-E. To check other analyses and recreations we’ve done so far, please visit our Instagram page.
“Gritty reportage”
“War photography”
many soldiers are crammed on top of each other, in the style of monochrome canvases, human sculptures, spectacular backdrops, grit and grain, japanese traditional art influence, photo, dark gray
several statues of soldiers stacked on stairways, in the style of misha gordin, yoshiyuki tomino, captivating documentary photos, detailed crowd scenes, xu bing, large-scale figuration
a group of statues that have been placed on steps, in the style of gritty reportage, war photography, mori kei, repetitive rephotography, contrast of scale
a number of men and bags walking up a hill with the other soldiers, in the style of conceptual sculpture, akihiko yoshida, captures raw emotions, humanity’s struggle, national geographic photo, heavy texture
“Porcelain”
“Flawless line work”
a painting of a woman in water with blue striped lines, in the style of crips neo-pop illustrations, chinese painting, monochromatic realism, wandering eye, embroidery art, wavy resin sheets, silkscreen
a girl with long curly hair is in the water surrounded by blue stripes, in the style of joong keun lee, illusory realism, miwa komatsum, monochromatic portraits, shiny eyes, porcelain
an illustration with a woman in the water, in the style of striped painting, indigo and azure, flawless line work, absurdist installations, gongbi, emotive portraits
person, sea water, paintings, in the style of maya lin, intense gaze, fluid lines and curves, jocelyn hobbie
“Political minimalism”
“Human connection”
a sculpture of cactus flowers with a wooden cord, in the style of john brack, layered gestures, john pawson, leather/hide, phoenician art, bentwood, jessie arms botke
cactus wall sculpture made of wood, in the style of intuitive gestures, restrained forms, political minimalism, light brown and pink, bold gestures, tabletop photography
b. zander’s ‘elephant and cactus’, in the style of handheld, focus on joints/connections, subversive appropriation, postmodern appropriation
cactus ‘i want you’, in the style of martin puryear, kinuko y. craft, restrained serenity, gilberto hernández ortega, gesture, human connection
“Objective abstraction”
“Subtle tonal shifts”
a shelf in a white wall with many pottery items, in the style of bill durgin, monochromatic serenity, abstract minimalism appreciator, tim etchells, rachel whiteread, naturalistic details, bio-art
white bookshelf with books and wooden shelves, in the style of columns and totems, repetition and accumulation, large-scale painting, non- representational art
oscar holt artspace installation in white and glass, in the style of objective abstraction, light gray and aquamarine, frances macdonald, subtle tonal shifts, sculptural use of paint
a glass case full of objects on a shelf, in the style of patinated and oxidized, jaume plensa, anne truitt, fujifilm fujicolor c200, tactile surfaces, data visualization, piles/stacks
“Patience of a saint”
“Surprisingly absurd”
a man’s head is covered with a basketball, in the style of alex andreev, renaissance-inspired chiaroscuro, minimalist collages, diego velázquez, debbie criswell, post-internet art, patience of a saint
a basketball ball put on the head of a man, in the style of christian schloe, mikalojus konstantinas ciurlionis, michelangelo pistoletto, minimalist expressionism, surprisingly absurd, darkest academia
an old man is holding a basketball, in the style of photosurrealist photorealism, barkley I. hendricks, collage experimentation, marina abramović, ghostly presence
a black cloak covering the man’s head, in the style of minimalist collages, pop culture mashup, ernie barnes, jacek szynkarczuk, realist detail, mcdonaldpunk, bulbous
“Oscar Niemeyer”
“Enigmatic tropics”
a house is sitting on a hill in front of palm trees at sunset, in the style of modular constructivism, realistic and hyper-detailed renderings, ed freeman, dark magenta and green, moshe safdie, panoramic scale, eerily realistic
a tropical desert is the setting of this house, in the style of rendered in cinema4d, magenta and bronze, hdr, post-war, agfa vista, 32k uhd, editorial illustrations
a house in the background with palm trees, in the style of light amber and magenta, 32k uhd, oscar niemeyer, mountainous vistas, engineering/construction and design
a colorful piece of artwork, a house being built and a hill in the background, in the style of vray tracing, enigmatic tropics, dark pink and orange, american mid- century design, impressive panoramas, design by architects
