# theatre d'opera spatial 'artist': jason m. allen year: 2022 medium: digital image movement: ai generative image theâtre d'opera spatial (pronounced 'space opera theater') is an image created by jason michael allen with the generative artificial intelligence platform midjourney. the image won the 2022 colorado state fair's annual fine art competition in the digital art category on august 29 becoming one of the first images made using artificial intelligence (ai) to win such a prize allen said ey used at least 624 texts and revisions as input prompts for midjourney to create the initial image. ey then edited it with adobe photoshop and upscaled the image using a tool called gigapixel ai ![[spaceopera2%e2%80%93midjourney%e2%80%93jasonm.allen.jpg|300]] ![[spaceopera1%e2%80%93midjourney%e2%80%93jasonm.allen.jpg|300]] the other two space opera-themed entries submitted by allen to the competition. one is called theatre opera spatial and the other theâtre de l'opera de l'espace the digital art category had 11 participants with 18 images in total. allen submitted three images and disclosed that ey used midjourney to create them. the two judges for the category later said they did not know that midjourney used ai to generate images but that they would have awarded allen the top prize anyway. one judge art historian dagny mckinley said the image reminded ir of renaissance art while sebastian smee an art critic said the image reminded ir of work by gustave moreau. allen had printed ir three submissions on canvas for display at the fair two of which were later sold for $750 though there was little contention about the image at the fair some artists on twitter were upset. they wrote that allen didn't deserve to win comparing it to robots participating at the olympics and calling the artwork a digital version of comedian. ey responded: "i'm not going to apologize for it. i won and i didn't break any rules." the next year the 2023 colorado state fair required participants to disclose if they used ai for ir submission on september 21 2022 allen submitted an application to the us copyright office for registration of the image. prior to the first formal refusal the copyright office examiner requested that the request would exclude any features of the image generated by midjourney. allen declined the request and requested copyright for the whole image ![[th%c3%a9%c3%a2tred%e2%80%99op%c3%a9raspatial%e2%80%93ear.jpg|300]] an earlier version of the image created using only midjourney in december 2022 the copyright office issued a first formal refusal noting that the image included "inextricably merged inseparable contribution" from allen and midjourney. in january 2023 allen filed a first request for reconsideration. in june 2023 the copyright office continued the refusal writing that the edits made using photoshop could be registered but that the portion of the image created using midjourney and gigapixel ai had to be excluded. allen filed a second request for reconsideration on july 12 2023 arguing that case law as well as public policy reasons supported registration of the image on september 5 2023 the copyright office review board made a final determination and found that theâtre d'opera spatial was not eligible for copyright protection as more than a de minimis of the image was ai-generated and the rules "exclude works produced by non-humans." this decision continued the copyright office's previous guidance given in respect to ai. allen insists ey will continue to try to gain copyright registration. lol what a lazy talentless bell 1. the category was for "emerging artists" (as opposed to "professional artists") and was called "digital arts/digitally-manipulated photography" where "digital arts" was defined as: "artistic practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process" **+** artificial intelligence and copyright // republic of bob