Waste

John Everett Millais WorkSymbolism and Flowers ^[1]

Rosemary

A flower of remembrance of the dead.

Pansies

The name derives from the french word “pensées” which is French for thoughts.

Fennel

The flower of martial infidelity.

Columbines

Are a symbol of flattery or insincerity.

Rue

A flower that is bitter and is representative of regrets.

Daisies

A simple symbol of innocence.

Violets

A symbol of faithfulness.

Poppies

This plant is a bonus flower, Millais added it to his composition as a symbol of sleep and death.

John Everett Millais’s oil painting Ophelia holds layers of meaning that can be used to understand what the image of the young woman meant during its creation in the 19th century. Due the loss of the characters father and no one for her to connect with, Art History professor Michelle Facos shares that the oil painting’s depiction can be lent to the idea that the character had used imagination as a means of coping with her life ^[2].  In 19th century England bourgeois women, along with poorer women, were trapped by the oppressive nature of the patriarchy. Faccos shares that these more affluent women were stuck in a lifestyle which made them feel “frustrated and bored by a life of forced leisure and submission”^[3]. For some women in this era they found that they could relate to the character. Many women “were driven literally crazy by legal and social constraints, found themselves committed to insane asylums, which reinforced misconceptions about the mental instability of women.”^[4]. Tragically the death of Ophelia was not unlike those who had succumb to their mental illness during this time as “suicide by drowning was the most frequently chosen method of suicide for women in the ninetieth century”^[5]. These women who were made to spend days as a silent decoration in the home indicates not only a waste of potential but in extreme cases ended a life that was ended due to the nature of oppressive values.

Ophelia is a character that has been associated with the failures that a patriarchal society tends to have. Her character has been torn apart and reassembled to fit into the zeitgeist that she is re-represented in and reflect it back onto the viewers. Dr. Simonetta Falchi of the Università de Sassari in Sassari Italy makes point to say that Ophelia’s ability to be painted symbolically over the course of history “has rendered her the most represented of Shakespeare’s heroines” ^[6]. This is of interest not only because she has very little stage time or few lines but that out of the collection of women that Shakespeare has written she is an exceptionally vague character. Falchi notices this and argues that this lack of information creates an empty space, “she is a mere ‘nothing’, a vacuum. By virtue of this absence, of this hollow space…multifarious interpretations of Ophelia have been found.”^[7] When Hamlet was first presented Ophelia was understood as a lovesick girl, then later in the romantic period she was thought of as “a heroine who felt too much” ^[8]. This idea of her character as one who felt too much comes from Romantic critics such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whereas French symbolists saw the character “as a white page for male fantasy to write on.” ^[9]. Unfortunate.

Ophelia’s suffering appears to be less and less glamourized as psychiatry moves forward and instead of being a blank space for male projection, she “became the object of medical attention and was merely classified as insane in need of treatment” ^[10]. After her “diagnosis” it became clear that she was a tragic image of untreated mental illness, and this was a stepping stone for feminist critique to take form on the stage of “revolutionary theatre, [where] she became the emblem of the victims’ revolt” in re written deceptions of the character. ^[11] Despite her brief stint as this revolutionary character around 2000 she would return to being “once again a symbol of defeated powerless women in search of guidance” ^[12] This reversion is due to unknown reasons but is interesting, nonetheless. In the case of the AI generated image that I have chosen to use, the newly applied intent for this is character to express the impact and emptiness that mass consumption can have on an individual and the effects that these habits have on the environment.

Analysis of AI 

The focal point of the image [Fig.1] contains a woman laying on her back in a half-sunk boat. The boat fails to be operable not only due to the leak, but the oars and their holders are on the same side. The useless rowboat does not have a pointed nose, so it is difficult to tell if there is a front, or even if this boat had been functional before.  Ophelia is pale and her skin glows in contrast to the dark shadows of the boat.  She is wearing a cream-coloured dress that clings to her body and then flows away from her at the knees. She has a semi detailed corset bodice which is twisted, possibly running diagonally from her left shoulder. With her head reclined her nose points up toward the sky and her right ear faces the viewer. She has copper hair which appears to cut off at the neck, either indicating its submerged or possibly, the remaining portion was not generated by the machine. Her face lacks any defined characteristics of the senses which seems to be a trademark of the AI’s handiwork. The lack of defined eyes makes the corpse appear more off-putting the longer one lingers and the inability to focus in on the face adds a soft ghost like glow.

Waste is what makes up the foreground in this scene. The litter is settled in patches of mossy green slime that floats on the surface. The trash is overwhelming, and abrasive compared to the gloomy reeds and riverbank that surrounds the body of water. There appears to be plastic bottles with paper labels. Although the details are missing the connection can be made that the red labels are a cola brand (possibly Coca-Cola) and the blue bottled water brands (Pure-life, Aquafina, Smart Water). Among the bottles there are barrels scattered both plastic and metal, and other miscellaneous household cleaning products containers. Right next to the boat, it is unclear but a possible connection to the plastic can rings can be made, this type of debris is bad for the fish and other aquatic life as they tend to get trapped in them.  Floating in the water and scattered along the shoreline are skulls or fragments of them. These skulls must be read as an allusion to Hamlet and the famous “to be or not to be” monologue, however, the manner that they are scattered in is haphazardly and lends itself to the chaos of the waste. Interestingly there seems to be bone fragments scattered in the image, these are a source of confusion. In the centre it looks like there might be a large joint sticking out; on the shore a long, distorted arm bent at the elbow.

An integral element that the image lacks is flowers. In the fourth act, scene 5 of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Ophelia sings while passing out flowers to the other characters on stage. She says:

          “There’s rosemary for remembrance.

          Pray you, love, remember . And there is pansies,

          that’s for thoughts…

          there’s fennel for you and columbines.

          There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me; we

          may it herb of grace o’Sundays. You must wear your rue

          with a difference. There’s a daisy. I would

          give you some violets, but they withered all when

          my father died. They say he made a good end.”

                                                               (Hamlet act IV, scene V, lines 199-201; 204-209)

The flowers listed all have symbolic meaning attached to them (see sidebar) John Everett Millais’s Ophelia included these flowers as well and with the addition of poppies. The decision of the AI to not include these plants is a curious one.  Does the lack of flowers help sell the notion that she is laying a place that is too ecologically destroyed that they can’t survive anymore, or does one make the connection that the trash is a placeholder for the flowers.

Formally, the variation of colour that is juxtaposed to the bleak background does create an interesting visual that is like the given artwork prompt. The major difference in feeling lays in the duality of warmth and cold blood in Millais work and the empty ghostly presence that the AI has created. Millais work is haunting as we are faced with the loss of a young woman clutching to a chain of flowers a visual of innocence. The artwork that was generated loses the immense feeling of a single loss and opts to zooms out bearing witness to the overwhelming waste at hand.

Hand of the Artist

The AI was unable to create to a work that was truly in the style of the Pre-Raphaelite artist. The generated image is interesting to look at, but it lacks the richness of the oil paint and texture that tied the original image together in a pleasing bow of juxtaposition, a thriving environment and a body left to decay in it.  The AI (DALL-e) used might not be able to create an image that directly calls the viewers memory back to the original image and this could be due to a few reasons. The room for the masters like Rembrandt or Van Gogh to be copied is quite large whereas it appears artists that are not on the same level of current social recognition may not have the same results in iconic reproduction.  This is not to say that this artwork is unknown by any means but the fact that the painting did not come through in his stye at all in a very well-known image is concerning.

The term zombification in relation to art history is used to describe the use of AI “that attempts to simulate the style and content of master’s that have been dead for centuries.” ^[13]. Like a zombie which is alive and dead at the same time this is an interesting way of approaching the subject. When we question who the artist is once we’ve fed the machine our prompts, we are left with little accurate answers. Hassine and Neeman argue that “the difference is that the human forger injects at least a modicum of creativity to the forgery”^[14]. They point out that this is not the first time that art has been copied, reproduced, or forged in history but it is the first time that the human hand has had zero interaction with the work. Though we did not use the systems that theses authors discussed there are similarities in both sets of results. The pair shares that a problem that they encountered is that when a system is given the directive to recreate works of great artists in history it will “inexorably zero in only on the most clear-cut characteristics and recognizable perimeters of the artist’s style and /or content”^[15]. This is present in the reimagining of Ophelia. The machine was unable to pick up on the stylistic choice of Millais and it feels that way. Credit is due, however, as it did present the figure in the right position.

That is not to say that the use of AI is something that art historians should shy away from. The work that these algorithms create has too vast a range to deem them as good or bad over all (not unlike physical human made art) so the argument should be tabled until there are clearer and set ways of approaching the subject. The argument that is more relevant is that art historians should look to these AI programs as tools of research. Author David Stork from Stanford, argues in favour of those in the field to use the technology that is now available. They share that “deep neural networks – machine-learning systems that mimic biological neural networks in brains – can detect the locations of key points [in portraiture], such as the tip of the nose or the corners of the eyes in a painting. They then accurately infer the angles of a subject’s pose around three perpendicular axes for realistic and highly stylized portraits”^[16]. Furthermore, they share that through using these tools AI “can reveal trends in the compositions of landscapes, colour schemes, brush strokes, perspective and more across major art movements” ^[17]. The point that the author is trying to make is that these tools are good for helping to understand trends and that they are “most accurate when they incorporate an art historian’s knowledge of factors such as social norms, costumes and artistic styles.”^[18] . Had more art historians been present in the formation of Dall-E, the image that was created for this chapter may have been closer in style to that of the pre-Raphaelite which it had been given direction to recreate.

The Environment

The use of AI in art is something that is highly debated through channels of thought such as the hand of the artist and question of claimed artistry. While this is true art, even AI art, can lead to questions about the social landscape both historically and that we are currently living in. The image that I had the machine create shows ecological disaster while alluding to symbols of the waste at hand. Although it is presumptuous to assume that this specific work will inspire individuals to act against their wasteful nature it is not unlikely that other works showing similar themes may inspire individuals in the future to use AI to combat these problems. Inspiration leads to action and action can lead to results.

The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) is a section of the United Nations (UN) and their mission “is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations” ^[19]  AI is being used to assist in the fight against ecological downfalls. The UNEP coordinator David Jensen shares the organizations definition of AI: “AI refers to the systems or machines that perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, and can iteratively improve themselves over time, based on information they collect.” ^[20] These systems are meant to be helpful in various ways.  AI can be used globally but also on smaller scales such as in the home. This means that the use of these technologies for a better understanding of environmental issues can be executed by both large groups and in small and individual ways.  The UNEP uses AI as a way to gather real-time data, monitor methane emissions, track air quality, and measure environmental footprints. The organization makes note that in using these technologies they too have an impact on the environment, “while data and AI are necessary for enhanced environmental monitoring, there is an environmental cost to processing this data that we must also take into account” ^[21].  They call for a reduction of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and their research shows that “to target this waste, consumers should reduce consumption, recycle electronic goods and repair those that can be fixed.” ^[22]

Megan Mastrola from Johns Hopkins University also shares information on how AI can be used in the global battle against climate change. Mastrola shares that AI is useful for its ability to gather data in the skies with satellites and in water and on land using AI powered robots. Robots are being used in the arctic when it is too difficult to navigate in the winter season, sharing that “in this scenario [AI powered robots] allows information to be accumulated with the technology” ^[23]In water environmental data collection the author shares that robots are useful but expensive and more works need to be done as “autonomous capabilities need to be improved. This is where AI come into play.”^[24] Like the UNEP, Mastrola makes it very clear that the use of AI in environmental practices is only helpful if the benefits outweigh the negative effects of the tools energy consumption. Through responsible use of AI to gather and analyze data there is hope for environmental protections and rehabilitation. The video below helps in visualizing the waste that humans create and gives insight on how to do better for the environment.

[Akot Kuvonda], Portrait of Kelseigh Thompson, 2024, ChatGPT. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

 Kelseigh Thompson is a 4^th year art history student at the University of Ottawa. Her research interests include the fragility of the human experience in art and the interconnections of humans and the environment in literature. When she is not reading she is making art and spending time her cat and loved ones.