Seethe: An AI Experiment

I recently found myself looking up the definition for "seethe" while writing something and I loved the definition so much that it gave me an idea. I decided to start collecting interesting definitions to words that sound very poetic and beautiful. Then all these art creating robots burst onto the scene and I thought what a perfect way to play with the art of these bots and create something all together new. Maybe some of these experiments will inspire further creativity in myself or others.

For my first trick, of course I'll start with the definition for seethe which I found on merriam-webster.com. There are multiple definitions, but I just wanted to play with my favorite:

Seethe: to suffer violent internal excitement

Brilliant in it's simplicity and clarity. I can feel it as I hear it. I also really love the hidden rage aspect.

The two main bots that I know of out there are Craiyon and Midjourney. First, we'll start with the craiyon bot. Formerly known as Dall-e, this bot is free and outputs some interesting results, but isn't quite as detailed or painterly as Midjourney (which is my favorite).

The only rule is to use just the definition as the prompt, so I'm using "to suffer violent internal excitement" as the seed for the art here.

As expected, I'm not quite satisfied with the results here, though it's certainly bringing a full serving of absurdity. I'm getting more vibes of a twisted game of peekaboo from most of these. The creepiness factor is definitely present, though I think the scale here tips more toward humorous and absurd. I think to get something more interesting out of this one, I might need to add more to tweak the language, but that breaks my one rule.

Let's hope Midjourney gives me something a little more interesting:

Now we're getting somewhere. These are gorgeous! I think the first and last represent the prompt best, so I played with different versions of those and upscaled them to get something really nice.

This one is my absolute favorite, even though the violent excitement is a bit more external than it probably should be for this prompt. This could be a good representation of what it feels like to seethe for too long, bottled up until it bursts out of you. I could also see this literally interpreted into a story about lab experiments gone wrong. The test subject grew a ribcage on their head and died screaming in agony as it burst through their skull. Could also be an alien parasite or a monster. hmmm...

I think this one best represents the prompt. The red fog seeping out of their pores, uncontainable. The fire burning you up inside. There's also a sense of motion from the glitches in the features like the repeated nose and the ghosted sleeves. I get the sense that this person is bracing themself and wading slowly through their own discontent.

Here's a gallery of some of the other images produced in my experiments with Midjourney:

As a bonus, I thought I'd try using just the word "Seethe" as a prompt and was not disappointed by that result either. Enjoy:

Big time alien planet sci-fi lit vibes here. The first one looks like a book cover already, and I wanna meet the person from the second one.

Do you have any favorite poetic definitions? What do you think about all this AI stuff? Is it cool or do you get those dystopia worries popping into your head? Let me know what you think.

Later moods!