1634 Nordstrand Island flood – Art using AI

Authors experiences History Special Interests vanNostrand

All these images were all generated using AI (Artificial Intelligence) for my first time, in less than an hour. Previously I actually commissioned an artist to created a beautiful painting related to my family heritage based on my “concept”. This process is similar, but faster, and easier.

My vanNostrand ancestors left Nordstrand Island (present day Germany) via the Netherlands to come to “New Amsterdam” (present day New York), North America in 1638, after a horific storm flood killed most of the 6,000 inhabitants of the island. They were among the 1,500 who survived.

Controversy

This controversial form of art, really is more about the artistic “concepts”, rather than the artistic technique. Its fascinating to create quite viable art using only key word concepts. I guess its as much “art” as the two colour stripes painted on a giant billboard sized canvas I saw at an art gallery in Toronto. It seems especially useful for historical art, were there were no cameras back in 1634, and even few paintings, but only to the extent that you can “trust” the “creator.

Technique

I used the new “chat” feature built into the Microsoft Bing (www.Bing.com) alternative to Google. It is free, and seems to be integrated with “DALL-E” using Bing Image Creator.

It starts with the simple request to the AI chat robot:

  • “draw me a picture of the flood destruction of Nordstrand Island”

The result was too modern, so I refined it using:

  • make it using a 1634 style home

This result was better, but not the grass thatched style roof of the island, so:

  • “with grass thatched roof”

The tool actually gives FOUR variation results, which were quite good. This was my favorite starting image.

So I wanted to place it on the grassy dykes of Nordstrand, and a ship wreck

  • “located at the edge of a grassy dyke that has been breached”
  • add a wrecked ship from that period in the background

  • add two sheep grazing on the grass“, yielded some interesting variations:

  • add a couple in period costume“, and “add Dutch style windmill in background” yielded these:

  • make it more realistic

  • “add lightning storm clouds” yielded my final result.

The final FOUR

Which ONE do you like the best? I am having a hard time picking ONE.

Painted Art

Here is the painting that I commissioned a few years ago, which depicted more of the towns that were flooded and totally obliterated.

And for fun – Dragon in the Cave at Starrs Point

Dragon in cave, Starrs Point, Bing AI 2023

Please SUBSCRIBE to our NOTIFICATIONS

If you would like to be notified of more articles like this, please LIKE our Facebook page, which will then include us in your Facebook feed. Use this LINK to take you to our page, then click the LIKE button shown below. Or Like our twitter feed.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 128 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here