In which Jennnifer sits down and writes a blog post utilizing her BFA in Studio Art and History plus decades of study and practice in art and photography along with her occult knowledge. Bonus points because I worked in a library too.
You have probably seen this group of images under the guise of “Baphomet’s Bookclub” shared around social media credited to The Pumpkin Empress. WIthout context or any type of scrutiny, it is assumed that these are real images and are being thrown around in a generalized fearmongering satanic panic kind of way. These images, while creative are being used to create fear and to spread hate because people believe this to actually be happening.
Here’s the thing….
THIS IS ALL AI (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE) GENERATED IMAGERY.
Welcome to the world of AI deep fakes.
Edited to add: They do acknowledge in a completely separate post that these images are created with AI. Personally speaking, the damage is done as it is not connected to the original post unless you click through the levels of how/who shared it and go to their page and it contains an unrelated AI image along with their response. Trust me, I looked and scrolled right past it. Besides which no one who is in a moral outrage is going to do their due dilligence. I am sure they enoyed the fruits of their fake art labor with lots of clicks and shares.
Back from my days working and designing in virtual reality platforms, there is a concept that got thrown around a lot called the uncanny valley
The uncanny valley happens when something visually simulates and closely resembles humans, but is so hyper real that it becomes not quite convincingly realistic and can be rather jarring. They become so hyper real that is visually creepy because your brain can’t process it correctly. To the undiscerning eye, in the case of these images and other AI art, you can easily be visually tricked into thinking these images are real photographs.
AI art evidences this uncanny valley. If you suspect something may be AI art zoom in and look for details… there are so many awkward tells in these photos, mostly look at the hands and fingers.
As someone who spent numerous hours in art school drawing, painting, and photographing hands - they are a gigantic pain in the ass to render correctly and even In photos they can end up looking like awkward claws and abstractly inhuman. Not to mention the other bazillion hours I spent studying art history since that’s what my college degree is in.
I have seen these images used to create fear around the Satanic temples after school satan program as well as any occult or witchcraft related topics. I am not speaking on behalf of the Satanic Temple in any capacity, but I drawing attention to the falsehood of these photos as they pose a REAL threat to occult practicioners when used to fearmonger during the new Satanic Panic. I am old enough to have lived through the first one so I know how the story goes.
AI art has blurred the lines so fast and so realistically, but you can always spot those uncanny valleys in which the visuality mismatches reality.
So I took some time out of my busy schedule to go through each of these photos and highlight ALL the tells that spell out deep fakes and AI Art. They are circled and annotated below so Zoom in and have fun.
Once you see it - you can’t unsee it.
I highlighted the visual discrepancies in this picture. Zoom in to see the details. Aside from the following obvious tells - the expressionless faces and lack of cast shadows in most places from the bodies.
1. Where are this kids arms and hands attached that they are folded in such a manner
2. The position of this kids lower body does not match the upper and is awkardly positioned
3. The demon costume has melded into this childs head so its not the second hand of the demon as it mismatches the pictured one and its not accurate if the hand is supposed to be on top of the kids head.
4. Awkward rending of hands and feet, also the kid appears to be missing shoes in a public space.
The childrens features are all too smooth, their faces are expressionless, and eyes are all really dark. There are minimal if no cast shadows again.
Look at the hands of the children (circled in white) these hands barely look human let alone porportionally speaking that of the hands of small children.
The symbols circled in yello are anomalous and are out of place. Additionally, if you zoom in on the symbol in the circle the rendering is missing bits, blurred, the texture changes, and does not seem affixed to what appears to be carpetting.
Again, expressionless children, at least there are some attempts at cast shadows in this one. The hands and fingers again are perculiar. The child on the right’s forearm is too long in comparison to the upper arm and appears to have disembodied finger. Additionally, she has blond hair tucked under the headpiece whilst the rest of her hair is brown. Also, as someone who wears a lot of ornate and artistic headpiees, there is no clear indicator of how the child on the rights horns are actually staying on her head given that the weight is all distributed at the front of her head and sides. This piece even with very light weight matierals would need to be secured somehow to stay in place.
Didn’t need to circile anything… there are no shadows and who would put a running water fountain in the middle of carpetted flooring in a library FOR A BOOK CLUB? Book clubs meet maybe once a month at best?
Apart from awkward hands on kids and apparently the worlds largest baby - looks like a baby head on a 4-5 year olds body.
The robed man also appeard to be part chair as well and the hand on one side is on his leg, also hands are tiny and on the other side in the same position the hand is on the chair arm/leg, but not his leg and then there is an awkward gap in the middle when you would assume his lower legs attached to the upper legs and his hips and butt would be, but they are obscured by cloth that does not seem to indicate anything beneath it. Bonus points, his batman cape/hat has a knick in the one ear.
Almost convincing minus the lack of chairs or a sitting surface plus the hands especially the child on the right and more completely expressionless faces.
Didnt need to circle anything, but I have questions…. I have been using a laptop for over 20 years…. is it easier to use if I turn it in the opposite direction? Also, whats up with the cables?
Well the kids in the back don’t have faces or they are partially rendered, again hands and feet are mismatched and incongruous. But, hey we gone some kids casting shadows…
Almost works, but the feet, hands, and horns don’t match and appear completely assymetrical. Also, the see through area of the middle top is mismatched to the bookshelves and off kilter.
The hands are not properly positioned or rendered to hold the books given the size of each that they would have some weight that would not distribute in such a way for small children to hold them in that manner. Heck, I am not sure I could even hold two larger books the way the girl on the right is holding them.
Visually this makes no sense, the positioning is weird, the table looks like a digital rendering of a table. Oh and the perspective of the bookcases is waaaay off.
This one is almost convincing outside of some hand and arm porportion issues plus the carpet patterns don’t match.
This is really bad chair design as the alignment is completely off. Also, not sure what is going on with the reflective glass in the bookshelves behind the chair.
Where did they find these expressionless and lifeless childrens faces? See also, weird hands.
So maybe its easier to do photo and video editing if you view your laptop from behind it and off to the side? Nice sneakers bruh!
Ran out of room to circle the hot mess of the bearded child and an entagled mess of limbs, feet, hands, and apparently the kids sitting on top of each other. The bookshelves are oddly designed too.
Lastly, so many badly rendered hands and arms and disembodied bodies… I just can’t even. If by now you think these images are REAL - please seek medical attention.
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Now you can SEE especially if you zoom in that there is more than meets the eye and you really don’t need an art degree to figure some of this out. Granted, I am sure the vast majority of people passing these images around like this is really happening looked at them for all of 5 seconds and assumed it was valid.
Now more than ever with the deep fakes that can be created with AI - question stuff like this first because there is very real danger in images like this that can cause real world harm to innocent folks because of religious fearmongering and Satanic Panic.
Live deliciously, but not stupidly,
Jennifer