confession time: I have worked in IT, programming mostly, and therefore my interaction with computers falls naturally into the verbal. I see computer systems as complexes that have to be approached in a specific manner to gain the results that I want.
I found this explanation of the way in which these systems work how art generators work and though it is a technical read it made plain to me one key fact
images found on the web are analysed in terms of their affect and the text that has become associated with that affect.
so this matches the intention of an artist to generate affect — that is the feelings in the viewer, far beyond the reach of the original artist. The user of one of these systems is striving to achieve affect in themselves by invoking words — in the terminology, prompts — that in the moment of the user’s interaction with the system result in an image that moves towards meeting the user’s intention.
thus just as a painter considers the paint on the palette with the intention of generating a result / affect so does the user of a system like Midjourney consider whether the prompt they enter moves toward the desired affect or needs to be undone.
