Unutterable

In September 2022, I embarked on a project to test the boundaries of the AI generative process using Dall-e . Instead of using objective terms to control the output, I substituted the verses from the poem, Le Voyage by Charles Baudelaire. I then turned the resulting images into oil paintings.

I wanted to know what would happen if I gave up control of the process and allowed the words from the poem to generate an unpredictable outcome. In other words, I made no conscious attempt to control the output by specifying color, style, genre or anything else. My goal was to play a Surrealist game with AI.

A week later the identical prompt generated a completely different set of pictures, all of which lacked the air of mystery and imagination of the first series.

Here is the prompt:

Le Voyage by Charles Baudelaire

To a child who is fond of maps and engravings
The universe is the size of his immense hunger.
Ah! how vast is the world in the light of a lamp!
In memory's eyes how small the world is!

One morning we set out, our brains aflame,
Our hearts full of resentment and bitter desires,
And we go, following the rhythm of the wave,
Lulling our infinite on the finite of the seas: