For my project Womb Room, I wanted to see how I could use AI to assist my process in creating immersive visuals that represent what the womb looks like from the perspective of someone living with a chronic womb condition.

This project is supposed to inspire creativity and abstract thinking. I want the visuals to feel metaphorical and allow us to reframe how we think about the body.

But in this case, I was interested in seeing how AI perceives the human body. Why? Because it’s like a mirror. It shows our own biases considering that the algorithms are made up of data that reflects how we as humans view the world.

Using Midjourney, I wanted to see how AI would visualise the womb

I wrote this prompt:

“a photorealistic image of the womb“a photorealistic image of the womb“

Image Description:

4 different images of the process from an ambient cell to cross-sections showing a baby in an umbilical cord, from inside a mother’s belly to a pregnant woman and everything is made in the style of pink wax, hyper realistic, hyper detailed, high resolution, high definition.

Fascinating!

The first four results all included imagery of a fetus. A bias has emerged. There is a clear association between the “womb” and pregnancy, even though not everyone with a womb sees their organ that way.

Nonetheless, the imagery looks so interesting, especially the last one where it sort of looks like a fetus forming in real time..or maybe exploding, I’m not sure.

As you know, I have been using Midjourney to support me with the image descriptions as well. The image descriptions at AI generated for me also tell me a lot about the biases we see with AI. In my prompt, I asked AI to generate me some imagery of the womb. When I put the same image they gave me back into the system to generate the image description. It revealed a lot.

The image description I chose for this post, was the most neutral and descriptive. However, I was presented with three other options. Read them below:

“4 different images of an accent color pink baby in the mother’s stomach, detailed in the style of hyperrealism, organic and fluid forms, colorful Moebius, dark crimson and light amber, macro photography, surrealistic, close-up shots, photorealistic detail, highly realistic.”

“A series of images showing the development and growth of an orange-pink baby in its mother’s stomach, from inside to outside, with detailed close-ups of each stage. The last picture is a realistic photo of a human being emerging outwards in the style of James Gurney. Hyper-realistic photography. High resolution.“”A series of images showing the development and growth of an orange-pink baby in its mother’s stomach, from inside to outside, with detailed close-ups of each stage. The last picture is a realistic photo of a human being emerging outwards in the style of James Gurney. Hyper-realistic photography. High resolution.“

“4 different images of the human baby in the mother’s stomach, showing inside and outside views. The images feature organic textures, fluid forms in the style of babycore, and detailed anatomy. A mandelbrot palette was used to create highly realistic, organic sculptures with detailed close-ups in a hyper-realistic style.“

In each of these descriptions, a few words stand out to me.

Mother – this implies a gendered association with the womb and the implication that the womb’s purpose is for pregnancy and childbirth. Remember, I never used this word in my prompt.

Baby – the use of non scientific language like “fetus” is very interesting

Stomach – babies do not grow in the stomach organ, they grow in the womb, so once again we’re seeing non-scientific language to describe the imagery

Discovering these biases is exciting for me. I feel like testing the algorithm for these biases can actually inform my process. Perhaps it’s not just about using AI to help me visualise my project. Maybe it’s also about looking into the gaps that the responses AI creates to question our own human biases.

After getting these results back, I then thought about what Midjourney would generate if I changed my language. Would different words carry different associations with the same organ and therefore generate different results?

We’ll find that out in my next post.