DALL-E 2 & 3 Alien Vases

Jul 15

My exploration of the vase form using GAN’s was fun, but ultimately a little disappointing because generated images are limited to the combination of possibilities within a strictly-defined dataset, for example photos of vases. After training a StyleGAN model on vases I could generate more images of vases. So what?

Creating “hybrid” images via transfer learning on disparate datasets (like cross-pollinating vases with beetles) resulted in strange and interesting new possibilities, but the process is labor intensive and also slightly disappointing. Vases mixed with beetles, so what?

It wasn’t until the advent of text-to-image generators like DALL·E that my mind was truly blown. Now, one could simply write a text prompt describing the desired image, and results would magically appear. One was no longer limited to specialized datasets, now we were dealing with ALL the images.

So far, my primary interest in image generators has been to explore new forms of ceramic objects, primarily vases. I’ve been through many versions of prompts. “A contemporary procelain vase that has never been seen before.” “A ceramic vase that represents a mathematical concept.” “A modern vase with a drippy glaze.” But none of these prompts produced what I felt were interesting or new forms. As a sci-fi lover, I naturally began asking for vases made by aliens, and my prompts gradually began producing novel forms. Excited to have just been given access to OpenaAI DALL·E 2, I iterated on the theme and settled on the following prompt:

September 2023 Update: DALL-E 3

Bing just released DALL-E 3 image generation via Image Creator.

Various prompts. Example: “High-resolution color photo of an enigmatic ceramic vessel, birthed by minds of a profoundly advanced extraterrestrial civilization, graces a white room. Its form is bewildering, defying earthly design paradigms to a degree rendering it nearly incomprehensible, yet magnetically alluring. This object invites onlookers into an alien realm of unfathomable creativity and futuristic aesthetics, shattering our terrestrial bounds of material and function.”