The Melbourne Writers Festival had long been positioned as Australia’s boldest literary festival. However after one of the world’s longest lockdowns, attendance and excitement for the festival had significantly dropped.

The challenge was to generate excitement for the written word, which was perceived as a dated medium, and affirm their position as a home for forward thinkers.

The Melbourne Writers Festival also runs on donations, so anywork created had to be done so at no production cost. This became a further creative challenge, to inspire Melbournians, without a media buy or production resources.

In terms of AI generated art, Midjourney version 3 was the breakthrough text to image platform. This launched July 25th 2022. Just two weeks later and In the midst of a media storm that questioned the future of art, we were in production.

While AI generated imagery sparked a worldwide debate on the future of art, no one was talking about the words needed to create them. For the Melbourne Writers Festival, we used AI art to prove the enduring power of the written word. We created a collection of AI artwork by entering passages from literary icons Mary Shelley, Herman Melville, H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker and George Orwell, word for word, into the AI - Midjourney. Showing that no matter how far technology advances, great writing will always matter. One of the world's first commercial uses of AI art created a new conversation about the future of creativity, solidifying the Melbourne Writers Festival as Australia's boldest literary event.

‘The Art of Words’ innovation in third party text prompts is being continually developed along with the advances in text to art technology.

To continue to breath new life into classic literature, a series of illustrated novels is under development. The novels currently being produced are ‘Moby Dick’, ‘1984’ and ‘Dracula’. The process to create AI illustrated pages for key passages in chapters has been automated using the Midjourney API. These are due for release by end of year.

To further explore the relationship between writing and AI, the State Library of Victoria has engaged the Melbourne Writers Festival to display the artwork along with the original publications of the novels in their museum. Hundred year old books will stand alongside their 2022 AI interpretations.

Descriptive passages from five great works of literature were input into the AI Midjourney. At the time the prompt language for Midjourney was evolving, so careful consideration had to be placed on the code that accompanied the excerpts entered. The weight of certain descriptive words, the context of the passage and the intention of the authors were all translated into Midjourney codes that placed within the original written text.

The result was a combination of two languages, human words, and AI code. And the creative reflected this, with the exact AI prompts being included in the final assets. This choice was to ensure each visually explored the intersection of technology and creativity – creating a collaboration between human and machine that spanned generations.

To ensure the accurate representation of the AI imagery, the artwork was not retouched or altered in any way. The text displayed on the creative was also a direct representation of the prompts entered.

Through use of digital screens at the many locations of the festival throughout Melbourne, Both ticket holders and the public viewed the static versions of the work in foyers of historic buildings, theaters, street fronts and even the state library. The city was transformed into a gallery for these newly generated pieces of art.

‘The Art of Words’ successfully created debate and discourse in the lead up to the event. The earned coverage reached 33 million people, which is six times the population of Melbourne. This boosted ticket sales dramatically, contributing to the most successful writers festival ever.

The perception of the writers festival being dated was directly challenged. By inserting the writers festival into a conversation about the future of creativity, a generation of creatively minded Melbournians were inspired to take an interest in the power of writing.