Painting created by Midjourney neural network wins art contest

A man named Jason Allen won an art competition at the Colorado State Fair with a painting that was created by the Midjourney neural network. It allows you to generate images from a text description.

The work is called "Theatre D'opéra Spatial". The painting won in the Digital Art category. The image shows a large hall with a sphere in the distance and several people in classic dresses.

According to the author of the work, winning the competition is also his merit, and not just algorithms. Allen noted that it took him several weeks to create the painting, fine-tuning and more than a hundred attempts. Several pre-made images have been enhanced with Gigapixel AI and printed on canvas.

Opinions about the victory of such a picture were divided. One Twitter user wrote : “We are witnessing the death of artistry before our very eyes. If creative jobs are not machine-proof, then even highly skilled workers are in danger of disappearing.”

On the other hand, there are users who believe that the work of neural networks can still be called art, and AI is “just another tool, and if you feel threatened by technology, then you are not a very good artist.”

Despite the controversy, the victory only encouraged Jason Allen: “I'm not going to stop. This victory only strengthened my faith in my work.”

What is Midjourney and how to start working with it can be found in this material.