Inspired by Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982)
From Kjartan Abel’s YouTube exhibition “Vitreous – This Does Not Exist”
- 1 minute 6 seconds
- Created August 11, 2022
- AI-generated video art with original soundtrack
What does it feel like to collaborate with an AI that’s still figuring out how to see? In August 2022, Midjourney was raw, unpredictable, beautifully flawed. Instead of fighting these limitations, I embraced them. The result captures something that polished AI might never achieve – the genuine uncertainty and grain of a world half-remembered, half-imagined.
“Tyrell and the Replicants” emerged from this creative tension. The AI couldn’t quite nail the corporate architecture, couldn’t render perfect neon signs. But those imperfections? They made the cyberpunk vision more authentic, more human somehow. The grainy uncertainty felt like memory itself – which is exactly what Blade Runner explores.
Finding Noir in the Digital Noise
Working with early Midjourney was like developing photographs in a darkroom where you never quite knew what would emerge. The AI generated stills that suggested rather than stated. Corporate towers loomed with brutalist weight, but their details remained wonderfully vague. Neon signs glowed with intention but blurred into atmospheric mood.
I sequenced these AI-generated moments like film frames, adding subtle camera movements that let viewers discover each corner of this digital Los Angeles. Then came the crucial addition – an alpha-channel rain overlay that brought everything to life. Suddenly, those static corporate monoliths breathed with weather and movement.
The Sound of Tomorrow, Recorded Yesterday
The soundtrack became my love letter to Vangelis while pushing into uncharted territory. I started with distant voices – human presence in a corporate landscape. Then a slow synth drone built the foundation, channeling that iconic Blade Runner melancholy.
But here’s where it gets interesting. I layered in actual Tokyo street recordings – police sirens cutting through Hiroo district ambience, crowds chanting in the distance, rain pattering on real pavement. The collision between synthetic future-noir and authentic urban life created something neither could achieve alone.
The result feels like standing in Tyrell Corporation’s shadow while Tokyo’s pulse beats beneath your feet. It’s that emotional complexity – hope and dread, artifice and authenticity – that makes cyberpunk so compelling.
Why This Moment Matters
Looking back, those “primitive” Midjourney renders now feel prophetic. As AI art becomes increasingly polished, there’s something precious about this rougher moment. The uncertainty forced creative solutions. The limitations became collaborators.
This piece captures both Blade Runner’s themes and our current AI moment – the tension between human creativity and machine imagination, the beauty found in imperfection, the questions about what makes something “real.”
Every time I watch those rain-soaked frames sequence past, I remember the thrill of working with an AI that was still learning to dream. That’s the story worth preserving.
Credit:
Music by Kjartan Abel
Police_Siren_Tokyo, by eyecandyuk https://freesound.org/people/eyecandyuk/sounds/34952/
Tokyo – Hiroo street, by manuke https://freesound.org/people/manuke/sounds/315898/
Tokyo – Chanting Crowd, by manuke https://freesound.org/people/manuke/sounds/315903/
Rainy city ambiance, by alindi https://freesound.org/people/alindi/sounds/546861/
