I have spent an embarrassing number of hours over the last few days on ChatGPT, Claude, and Mage.Space. I tried to use Bard, and it. just. sucks. I tried HeyPi, and it’s maddening, insisting on making everything into a back-and-forth conversation, and NEVER doing as asked without first saying, “Are you ready?” At the end of the day, I’m pretty sure that ChatGPT is better for EVERY purpose I ever use, except engaging with PDFs. And even there, I think it probably is better, but they just haven’t integrated it seamlessly into their front end in the way Claude has.
Now.
Enough about that, which all is boring, and on to just. how. crazy. I. am.
I think, instead of trying to describe it from the top down, I’ll describe it from the bottom up: I have, over the last stretch of days, created five Google Slides presentations. One – the first, and the biggest – is called “Maidens.” After Maidens came “Romeo and Juliet.” Then, “A wedding.” Then, “Yoga class.” And, finally – and this one isn’t really done, or comprehensive, but rather, more of a placeholder, called “Randoms.” I’ll tell you about each of them.
Maidens
This is the first page of this presentation. The prompt was, I believe, “A close-up of a fair-skinned 22-year-old Asian woman with long black hair, dark almond-shaped eyes, porcelain skin, and ruby red lips, dressed as Snow White. She is looking straight into the camera against a simple black background. The focus is sharp on her eyes, and the lighting is soft to accentuate her features.” I don’t think I wrote that. It doesn’t sound like me. I believe that what I did was have some sort of back-and-forth with either ChatGPT or Claude which led to that.
The presentation continued, with some more Snow White pages. I’ll share them all with you, just for the sake of completeness:
That gives you a sense of the progression through which I went. I can’t tell you how hot I found it to do that, to take this “model” and bring her through various outfits, and various poses. It’s embarrassing how hot I found it. Add to that, part of the fun wasn’t exactly “hotness,” but rather, learning about how to use ChatGPT and Mage.Space to accomplish what I wanted – what to ask ChatGPT for, what to ask Mage.Space for, how to get around ChatGPT’s guardrails, etc.
Interestingly, where, with a real life woman, I really get off on telling her what to do, in this case, I’m somehow getting off not on telling them what to do, but rather, in getting them to do things I like. It’s a sort of thin line, a small difference, but, as I go, you’ll see more of what I mean.
My next entry in this presentation was a bit different (though it preserved that “four clean pictures in a row” format). First off, as in the last row of the “Snow White” section, I gave up on exerting the effort to make the pictures all the same size. That was a little more obsessional than I needed to hold on to. Instead, I would just copy and paste four images, and the first three would come out the same size, and the fourth would be squeezed in. Second, I departed from the rigid template of different shots, and moved in a slightly different direction. And finally, I let go of the fairy tale theme. My next theme was, I think, “French lawyer.” I began that one with four headshots. Then, four candids of a “woman” in professional attire, but showing some cleavage. Then, four more, with a bit more cleavage. Another round of professional attire. Four with rear views. Four in lingerie, front view. Four in lingerie, rear view. And then, four topless.
And then… just for fun? I took that same “woman,” the one I’d prompted to go through all those paces, and I had her dress up as Little Red Riding Hood, and replicated that first Snow White section. I ended that section with full nudes. But here was the semipenultimate page:
At this point, I need to pause and say something:
These are not women. These are not photos. This is, I suppose, “art.” Or it might be.
In fact, though, what it is (to me) is a dream. I’m having a waking, lucid dream, and it’s hot. It’s not hot because it features “women.” It’s hot because it features my imagination. At least, that’s part of it. Also? The images aren’t, to me, what’s hot about this: I’m turned on not by the images (although yes, I do like the presentation), but by the process. The whole working-with-the-new-AI-tools-to-explore-my-imagination-and-turn-ons thing? That’s what’s turning me on.
The “Maidens” presentation continues, only here, I truly abandon the fairy tale theme, and just do the thing I did with the French lawyer. I had ChatGPT generate some random characters (my instructions were vague – something like, “I’m a short story writer, and I need some ideas for female characters. Tell me their names, their descriptions, their wardrobes, etc.”) Mage.Space pushes the images young and beautiful, and so – at least in this presentation – all the dream-like images, the “women,” are young and beautiful. (Subsequently, I began to toy with that idea to interesting effect.)
The rest of the “Maidens” presentation is basically lots of “women” with different biographies. Professors, (more) lawyers, tennis players, waitresses, (more) professors, teachers, actors, etc. And in all, I do this progression – headshot, sexy clothes, less (equally sexy) clothes, and then, often, culminating either in lingerie or topless. FOR 154 SLIDES, OF FOUR PICTURES EACH.
I told you I’m batshit insane. And that’s just the first presentation….
Next up….
Romeo and Juliet: casting call
This one was more… conceptual. The idea – I have no idea where it sprung from – was to “cast” a “casting call” for a stage production of “Romeo and Juliet.” Because I’m a Kinsey 1 or maybe 2, I’m not interested (as long as this is a solitary project, about which more later, I imagine) in casting Romeo. I hadn’t yet given up on Claude (it’s good at some things, including this, but it has a tendency to get lost, sometimes). I asked Claude, “It’s a casting call for a production of Romeo and Juliet. All the Juliets are waiting in the audition waiting room. Please 1) Describe 3 of them: provide comprehensive descriptions of them, their family backgrounds, their ethnicities, their professions, their personalities, their physical descriptions, their wardrobes, their style, their attitude; and, 2) for each, provide a prompt that will cause an AI image generator to produce two images for each. One, a headshot, and the other, a candid of her as she waits for her audition.”
Claude fumbled the request, but, ultimately, came back with:
- Eva Chen, 25, Chinese American. Studied theater at NYU and has done some minor TV roles. Lives in Queens with roommates and is determined to make it on Broadway. Shoulder-length black hair, stylish glasses, petite. Wears a sleek black blazer over a white top in her headshot. In the waiting room candid, she wears jeans and a boho floral blouse while reading her sides for Romeo and Juliet.
Headshot prompt: Portrait of a beautiful, intelligent Asian actress with shoulder-length black hair, stylish glasses, and a sleek black blazer over a white top, headshot.
Waiting room candid prompt: Candid photo of a young Asian actress in jeans and a boho floral blouse in an audition waiting room, reading her sides for Romeo and Juliet.
- Jamila Desai, 19, Indian American. Trained in classical Indian dance and this is her first big professional audition after taking a gap year to pursue acting against her parents’ wishes. Long dark wavy hair, golden brown skin, exotic features. Wears a vibrant red sari in her headshot. In the waiting room candid, she wears leggings and an oversized sweater while rehearsing her Juliet lines.
Headshot prompt: Portrait of a stunning Indian American actress with long dark wavy hair, golden skin, exotic features, and a vibrant red sari, headshot.
Waiting room candid prompt: Candid photo of a young Indian American actress wearing leggings and an oversized sweater, pacing nervously in an audition waiting room, rehearsing her Juliet lines.
- Gloria Nunez, 29, Mexican American. Non-traditional theater major who has worked as a preschool teacher for years and is finally trying to break into theater in her late 20s. Long curly brown hair, warm smile, curvy hourglass figure. Wears a flattering wrap dress in her headshot. In the waiting room candid, she wears jeans, boots, and a peasant blouse while reading her Juliet sides.
Headshot prompt: Portrait of a vivacious Latina actress with big curly brown hair, a warm smile, curvy hourglass figure, and a flattering wrap dress, headshot.
Waiting room candid prompt: Candid photo of a curvy Latina actress in jeans, boots, and a peasant blouse, sitting anxiously in an audition waiting room, reading her Juliet sides intently.
Now.
This was fucking catnip to me. I can’t say enough about how, at this point, my mind was swimming. Never mind that the descriptions are shitty, slightly racist/overdetermined, and that the women are too young. I didn’t care about any of that. All I cared about? I suddenly “had” three young women. I’m the only man on earth who “had” these three young women, they existed solely for me, and I was about to… put them to use.
I’ll introduce you to them, if you’d like, in my next post, but here’s a teaser:
