USC Libraries Board of Councilers' Ahmanson Lab Project Spotlight

Ahmanson Lab AI + ART Competition

The Event (Oct. 19, 2022)

While text-to-image generators allow users to create stunning images--from surreal and fantastical dreamscapes to photorealistic portraits or film stills--with simple text entries, composing the right prompt has emerged as its own kind of craft. This competition was a way to showcase the human and artistic elements of prompt composition and to encourage discussion, in our community, around the social issues that arise with increased access to these new technologies.

The Competition

Players competed in two consecutive rounds, attempting to craft and alter prompts that built off of, and responded to, their opponent's text, ideas, and style while generating interesting and engaging images.

Each round began with two nouns and one verb chosen by Lab staff.

The first player then had three minutes to craft a prompt around those words, generate a series of four initial images using Midjourney, and choose one image for upscale. The upscaled image represented the final image for the player's turn.

The second player then had 3 minutes to assess the image and alter the existing prompt to improve it in some fashion. How might they make the current image more interesting, realistic, or engaging? How might they make it more fantastical, grotesque, or bizarre? How might they take the current topic/prompt in a different direction entirely? In altering the prompt, the second player could add as much text as they like but could only remove 1/2 of the words already in the prompt - thus working with, while still altering, their opponents ideas and style.

The first player then had 3 minutes to repeat the process.

After 3 volleys (6 turns each), the audience voted on the best of the 6 images generated throughout the full round.

Round 1

Player One: Matthew Fontaine, PhD candidate, Computer Science

Player Two: Samuel Teets, PhD candidate, Department of English

Opening Words: Wind, Glass, and Float.
 

Volley 1: Player 1

Prompt: "A wonderous fantasy painting of a glass piano floating on clouds by Greg Rutkowski, trending on artstation."

 

Volley 1: Player 2

Prompt: "Windy fantasy floating piano on clouds trending on art station double exposure sun flare in the distance daydream wishing wisps intricate bright whimsy flights of fancy illusion glassy."*
*Red indicates text added to the prior prompt by the current player.

 

Volley 2: Player 1

Prompt: "A wonderous fantasy painting whimsical windmill piano floating on clouds wisps away from the earth with lense flair, optimized with deepdream latent walk, trending on artstation."

Volley 2: Player 2

Prompt: "Wispy fantasy painting whimsy windmilling music ethereally away from the earth optimized with deemdream latent walk trending on art station frosted glass floating beautifully at midnight silhouettes rim light aurora borealis intricate beautiful moon."

 

Volley 3: Player 1

Prompt: "A wispy abstract windmill under the foggy moonlight illuminated by the aurora borealis in the earthy style of a Totoro horror film in the painting style of Greg Rutkowski."

Volley 3: Player 2

Prompt: "Horror silhouette windmill rim light backlit foggy moonlight illuminated from above by the aurora borealis wintry spindly derelict haunted spirit capture horror film still painting whispering quiet suspense abstract in the style of greg rutkowski ar 9:16."

 

Voting:



Round 1 Winner: Matthew Fontaine.

Round 2

Player One: Nivedit Balam, Master's Computer Science

Player Two: Anna Shaposhnik, Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation (Major); Astronautical Engineering (Minor)

Opening Words: Weather, Hill, and Fly.


 

Volley 1: Player 1

Prompt: "A flying hill glides along elegantly through the dainty weather under the moonlight, studio ghibli style, cinematic lighting, awe inpiring, intricate details --q 2 --s 20000 --ar 16:9"

 

Volley 1: Player 2

Prompt: "A flying carpet glides under elegantly dainty drizzle weather rainbow hill, Hokusai, cinematic lighting, bright sun, paint brush, ink, intricate --q 2 --s 20000 --ar 16:9"*
*Red indicates text added to the prior prompt by the current player.

 

Volley 2: Player 1

Prompt: "A majestic flying phoenix glides over the rugged rainbow hills, Modern Da Vinci Style, cinematic lighting, 8k, intricate details --chaos 20 --ar 16:9"

Volley 2: Player 2

Prompt: "A majestic flying air steampunk dragon over rugged rainbow hills, Escher, surrealist, cut paper, scrapbook, warm lighting, intricate details --chaos 20 --ar 16:9"

 

Volley 3: Player 1

Prompt: "An ethereal regal moon spirit caresses the thundering mighty hills, Dali Style, surrealist, volumetric lighting, 8k, intricate details --chaos 20 --ar 16:9 "

Volley 3: Player 2

Prompt: "Regal moon crane flies over crimson red river, blue thundering mighty hills, surrealist, Freidrich, volumetric lighting, 8k, intricate details, unreal engine --chaos 20 --ar 16:9"

 

Voting:



Round 2 Winner: Nivedit Balam.

Finals

Player One: Matthew Fontaine, PhD candidate, Computer Science

Player Two: Nivedit Balam, Master's Computer Science

Opening Words: Winter, Book, and Draw.


 

Volley 1: Player 1

Prompt: "An Ukiyo-e Escher painting of pikachu in a sweater drawing on a book in a winter snowstorm wonderland --chaos 20 --ar 16:9"

 

Volley 1: Player 2

Prompt: "pikachu doing a swift lightning shock in a winter snowstorm wonderland, Monet Style, volumetric lighting, photorealistic, 8k, intricate details --chaos 20 --ar 16:9"
*Red indicates text added to the prior prompt by the current player.

 

Volley 2: Player 1

Prompt: "A photo of detective pikachu with a magnifying glass solving a lighting electric snowstorm wonderland mystery under the moonlight in the style of Greg Rutkowski, high dynamic range, 8k --chaos 20 --ar 16:9 --q 2"

Volley 2: Player 2

Prompt: "detective pikachu solves the mysteries of the electrifying depths of infinity , Studio Ghibli Style, Awe Inspiring, Surreal, Octane Render, Cinematic Lighting, Intricate Details, 8k --chaos 20 --ar 16:9 --q 2"

Voting:



Final Winner: Matthew Fontaine.

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