With each update,
#ImageGeneration models promise us more »realistic« representations – but the »reality« these images represent has little to do with the one we live in. Rather, they are best described as
#PlatformRealism.
In the age of networked online content, hardly any online text seems complete without at least one accompanying image. Many content management systems expect you to provide images for every post, even if they provide no additional information. These images are not mere illustrations, but attractors designed to make content more visible, shareable, and likable.
Other examples of generic images are stock photos or »key visuals« intended to convey the »identity« of a brand or product. Such images are typically »realistic« in that they are rendered in a style that conforms to our expectations of photographic »realism«. But instead of depicting concrete real-life situations, stock photos and key visuals stage abstract concepts such as competence, tradition, or whatever the client wants, transforming the realistic depiction of bodies and spaces into a stage for the symbolic manifestation of ideas.
Interestingly, this is also what »Socialist Realism« was about, according to Boris Groys – rather than reflecting the reality of real existing socialism, its mission was to convey »transcendental« messages by »incarnating« them in what only superficially looked like real people. It may be no coincidence that many of the images produced by Midjourney in its default mode have a striking affinity with the aesthetics of »Socialist Realism« – after all, they too are not depictions of real-world events, but »incarnations« of abstract concepts, as formulated in prompts.
What distinguishes
#PlatformRealism from both earlier capitalist and socialist versions of generic »realisms«, however, is its statistical character. It's a second-order aesthetic fueled by the automated extraction of patterns from largely redundant combinations of generic images and concepts.