Comfort is a collection of Generative Art produced as an experimental exploration into the present state of creative Ai tools (in this case MidJourney) and their ability to reflect or initiate various emotional states within humans. A singular prompt was used for all of the works within this series. The prompt for MidJourney (V3/4) was as follows: "An image that is beautiful and comforting for someone going through a difficult moment. Soft, cute, comforting, gentle, makes you feel like you’re being hugged when looking at it."
IMAGE 1 (Above)
This image was the strongest one in my view. It captured a sense of tenderness in the reaching for comfort embodied in the young girl. It also carried a weight of knowing sadness through the face of the bear. It both demonstrated the prompt and provoked the range of emotion in the viewer that the prompt called for (at least in me in that moment) .
IMAGE 2
What stands out to me is the pervasive sadness shown uniquely in each character. There is a surprising sense of energy and wildness in the hair of the young girl, while an overall stillness is conveyed through the hug and the choice of colour tones.
IMAGE 3
This image was unique in that it is an outlier in the model's choice of characters – opting for two forms of stuffed animal vs. a human + animal interaction. Or perhaps this is a Panda with his stuffed animal. The colour of this piece is brighter and less subdued. However, the expression on the most prominent figure and the interaction between the two capture the prompt's themes.
IMAGE 4
Again we see a childhood scene, and it's of note that the model primarily seemed to generate scenes from childhood. Perhaps this hints at how human emotions most often distill into their earliest expressed forms.
IMAGE 5
This is a familiar pose by now, but the presentation seems to be a bit more blotchy and cartoonish. The characters seem to me a little less sad and more a friendly comfort. If you look to the bottom left of the frame, you can see something odd. There is a human hand hugging the girl's back instead of a bear paw. Lil things like this are the quirks still in the system.
IMAGE 6 & 7
These two images were the least compelling to me. They both suffered from issues with the Ai's presentation of human hands and other odd artifacts. Generally, they fulfilled the prompt but were quirky and somewhat odd.
