"Utopian Hallucinations" combines two somewhat disparate threads in my recent AI work: my pseudo-photographic "Utopia" series and my deep explorations into AI-based abstract paintings.

The Utopia project is one where I imagine a post-civilization Earth inhabited by a future colony of survivors. We watch them as they explore a world that is both familiar and unfamiliar. They build things, hunt, harvest food, experiment with new-old technology, and work to resurrect cultural practices that only remain through generations of oral history.

Through the power of EmProps OpenStudio, I've used my Utopia algorithm with a collection of my abstract paintings as randomized init or source images, so the photographic world of the Utopians is now distorted, abstracted, and hallucinated through a kaleidoscopic painterly lens.

As with my EmProps Curated collection "Ghost in the Machine," I'm interested in creating dream-like images where the AI is as much a participant in the dream creation as I am.

I've used a large number of variable features in this project. From one output to the next some of the features may be clearly visible in the image and some may be "recessive" and therefore invisible in the output. For me this is the intended outcome -- it adds more variability and a greater chance of surprise.

Emil Corsillo Long-Form AI via EmProps OpenStudio Beta 2688 x 3456 PNG October 3rd, 2023