Josue Ibañez

Description

My early access to MidJourney ignited a fascination with manipulating nature's reality through AI-generated imagery. This experimentation, coupled with a home gardening project during the COVID-19 lockdown, led me to focus on creating digital plant species. Inspired by our growing garden and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 'The Metamorphosis of Plants', I began 'planting' digital species. These creations merged characteristics of our home-grown plants with imaginative colors, shapes, and compositions. Recently, I've developed a group of digital plants that evolved from an archetypal species created in 2019. Each new iteration retains elements of its predecessor, transforming while preserving the original's essence and palette. This ongoing evolution has been surprising as if these digital plants have taken on a life of their own – growing and changing over time yet maintaining their core identity.

Process

My creative process begins with extensive research, drawing inspiration from 19th-century botanical illustrations for their precision and interpretative style. These references serve as a foundation for my new species creations. The discovery phase is the most challenging, involving rigorous selection to ensure the potential for coherent evolution in future iterations. I leverage artificial intelligence to enhance compositions and generate scientific names, bridging imagination and tangible reality. A key insight has been the value of deep exploration within each discovered species rather than constant diversification. The richness emerges from delving into existing creations, allowing each species to develop in intricate and unique ways. Rather than broad expansion, this approach of focused evolution has become central to my artistic practice.

Tools

The process blends MidJourney-generated images with photographs, akin to digital collage. I prioritize visual manipulation over prompt-based generation, focusing on species that capture my interest. Once I achieve the desired aesthetic—balancing color, composition, and movement—I employ ChatGPT to generate a hypothetical scientific name and description. This AI-generated "scientific" foundation gives each species an imagined context and characteristics. The final step involves animating these creations using time interpolation techniques in ComfyUI, bringing them to life, and adding depth to each composition. This multidimensional approach melds technology with creativity. The project has evolved into a collaboration with Roberto Cabezas (@rheadsh), whose ComfyUI expertise contributes to more complex behaviors and consistent movement predictions over time.