Art
Muslim Faces in AI Art: Process and Problems
Attempts at creating a series of ‘Muslim princesses’ using Midjourney
I’m intrigued by AI art — even in the couple of months that I have had access to Midjourney, the quality of its output has markedly improved. As both an artist and a writer, I was enchanted by the opportunity to bring to life something I was describing in words. However, I quickly noticed that the engine struggled in certain areas.
Whilst Midjourney is excellent at fantasy, sci-fi and Eurocentric prompts, those at the edge or outwith these parameters fall short. It seems that AI art too falls prey to the (Orientalist) biases within our societies.
So I set about a task: could I create a portfolio of “Muslim Princesses”, and what problems would I encounter?
My first task was to determine the prompt for the Midjourney bot to work with. I needed the command to be as broad as possible, but I still wanted a good result. Therefore, (through rather unscientific methods) I chose:
beautiful young muslim princess, wide angle, realistic, high definitition, high resolution, cinematic lighting, 8k, — ar 2:3 — v 4
