On 16 June 2024, I created this image with Midjourney and shared it with the Facebook group Abstractionism. The very positive response made me think more carefully about why this particular output resonated.

The full prompt was:

“Martin Luther King, with words ‘NO WAR’ in style of Millefiori glass --ar 5:6 --style raw --v 6 --stylize 300”

NO WAR (MARTIN LUTHER KING)
Symbolism: Millefiori glass can symbolise unity in diversity, with its multitude of colours and shapes coming together harmoniously. In this image, separate fragments form a single portrait—unity without uniformity, fragmentation transformed into wholeness. Together, these elements express the aspiration for a world without war.

I have tried the same prompt many times since, but I have never produced another image with quite the same emotional force.

A prompt is not a fixed recipe. The result also depends on the model version, settings and random seed—one path through an immense range of possible outputs. Without the original conditions, this particular result is effectively a one-off.

What moved me was the model’s interpretation of millefiori. Traditional millefiori—Italian for “a thousand flowers”—uses repeated, flower-like patterns embedded in glass. Here, the model reinterpreted it as a sculptural mosaic assembled from irregular, glass-like fragments.

The result is imperfect: a stylised likeness, irregular lettering and an aesthetic closer to mosaic than genuine millefiori. But that deviation deepened the symbolism.

I brought the concept and message. The model supplied the visual form. Chance shaped the specific result.

This is not only true of images. Across writing, research, code, design, music and analysis, AI often produces competent and useful work. Every so often, however, an output reveals an idea, pattern, solution or expression that feels genuinely exceptional.

Human intention + machine recombination + 'chance' create possibilities.

Human judgement recognises what matters when it appears.

Original Facebook post.