The Third Seal of Revelation, when submitted to Deep Dream AI's text to image generator:
Revelation 6:5-6 "When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”
This first one struck me a little odd. I can see elements of the verse, but overall it looks like a failure to depict anything really. I never like when the first in a series is bizarre. It makes me paranoid that the entire experiment will be a wasted effort. The llama horse is in keeping with the AI mixing horses and lambs. The border appears to be a grain of some sort.
The stately gentleman riding a black horse in the autumn field seems a great fit considering the information given to work with.
This one gives me a strong sense of fatigue.
The horse is nearing llama qualities, but is still a horse. This image immediately, and still, makes me think of the Three Wise Men.
I do like the little llama. The frilly collar on the horse seems a bit off, but does not throw the image too far into surrealism. The llama seems to give me that impression though.
What a regal head of hair on a donkey-llama. Interesting border. I have noticed that a filigree, ornate metalwork, or some symbol of status seems to be present in many of the iterations. From the text, I do not quite see where that would come from. My only guess is that the AI has correlated horses to wealth.
Llama with a straight up horse head is new.
I really enjoy the background of this one.
The art style of AI vision always gets more near to the goal and looks great. The one drawback for me is the text. It is unintelligible nonsense most of the time. I would rather it just not be present if it isn't readable. I have tried to add negative prompts for "text" to avoid this, but it does not seem to altar the outcome.
I enjoy most things about this iteration, especially the monotone style. My only hang up is the scale that lacks a counter balance side, thus rendering it just a hanging bowl. It doesn't matter, but it still bothers me.
This one got the scales right. The fact that they are held by the rider is even closer to the text. The skulls on the shores are a creative way to represent the implied famine that is not outright spoken, at least not in a way that most people of today would understand the implications.
While there is nothing strikingly special in this image, I do enjoy it quite a bit. The composition appeals to me.
That lamb looks like it has a dog's tail.
This image depicts many of the elements very well. However, the entities in the background are quite odd. Perhaps the AI's interpretation of "the four living creatures?" While possible, the imagery did not appear when directly experimenting with the Biblical descriptions of the Four Living Creatures. However, the imagery has appeared in very near resemblance when submitting text that was discussing mental health, with no imagery guidance given.
To recap Revelation 6:5-6
"When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”
The black horse was consistently depicted, but much like the second seal, the rider, which is stated very clearly, is often not included. Some elements in about half of the imagines could symbolize famine. Desolate environment, fatigued or malnourished creatures, and skulls. The reference to famine may not be as clear today to the reader as we lack a frame of reference. The implications are that a days wages would not be sufficient to sustain a family. The mention of not damaging the oil and the wine would reference the socioeconomic disparities that will be preset. While nourishment is difficult to obtain for the general populace, the wealthy will experience relatively little effect on their luxury items that go beyond their sustenance. So, while a good reference to famine, and picked up on in most cases, the alternative are all the images that just included wheat or vegetation, taking the reference as a plain indicator of the presence of grains when generating the image. I honestly am surprised that it was able to make any approximation to the symbolism in any of the images. From my experience so far, the AI is typically abysmal at this task, and as algorithm for imagery, that is expected. So, either there is an improvement to the algorithm since previous experiments, or this reference specifically was able to make it through the process. Further research will tell. Coming up, the Fourth Seal. Revelation 6:7-8 "When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth."
I have high expectations for this seal, in terms of intriguing imagery. I doubt the images will be boring, even when they are far off target