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The Dream Within Huang Long Cave: AI-Driven Interactive Narrative for Family Storytelling and Emotional Reflection

Jiayang Huang, Lingjie Li, Kang Zhang, David Yip

TL;DR

This work tackles how AI-driven interactive narratives can interrogate Lacanian concepts of the Big Other and the Name-of-the-Father within modern family dynamics. By constructing YELL, a three-life-stage digital father powered by an LLM and photorealistic avatar, the project enables dialogic exploration of paternal authority, symbolic order, and emotional authenticity through a CAVE-based experience. The Analytic-Critical Method fuses psychobiography, Lacanian discourse analysis, Dalí's paranoiac method, and iterative practice-based design to produce a dynamic artwork and Machinima that reveal memory, desire, and relational shifts. The study offers insights into AI ethics, digital subjectivity, and the potential of interactive psychoanalytic storytelling to foster emotional connection across diverse family structures.

Abstract

This paper introduces the art project The Dream Within Huang Long Cave, an AI-driven interactive and immersive narrative experience. The project offers new insights into AI technology, artistic practice, and psychoanalysis. Inspired by actual geographical landscapes and familial archetypes, the work combines psychoanalytic theory and computational technology, providing an artistic response to the concept of the non-existence of the Big Other. The narrative is driven by a combination of a large language model (LLM) and a realistic digital character, forming a virtual agent named YELL. Through dialogue and exploration within a cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE), the audience is invited to unravel the language puzzles presented by YELL and help him overcome his life challenges. YELL is a fictional embodiment of the Big Other, modeled after the artist's real father. Through a cross-temporal interaction with this digital father, the project seeks to deconstruct complex familial relationships. By demonstrating the non-existence of the Big Other, we aim to underscore the authenticity of interpersonal emotions, positioning art as a bridge for emotional connection and understanding within family dynamics.

The Dream Within Huang Long Cave: AI-Driven Interactive Narrative for Family Storytelling and Emotional Reflection

TL;DR

This work tackles how AI-driven interactive narratives can interrogate Lacanian concepts of the Big Other and the Name-of-the-Father within modern family dynamics. By constructing YELL, a three-life-stage digital father powered by an LLM and photorealistic avatar, the project enables dialogic exploration of paternal authority, symbolic order, and emotional authenticity through a CAVE-based experience. The Analytic-Critical Method fuses psychobiography, Lacanian discourse analysis, Dalí's paranoiac method, and iterative practice-based design to produce a dynamic artwork and Machinima that reveal memory, desire, and relational shifts. The study offers insights into AI ethics, digital subjectivity, and the potential of interactive psychoanalytic storytelling to foster emotional connection across diverse family structures.

Abstract

This paper introduces the art project The Dream Within Huang Long Cave, an AI-driven interactive and immersive narrative experience. The project offers new insights into AI technology, artistic practice, and psychoanalysis. Inspired by actual geographical landscapes and familial archetypes, the work combines psychoanalytic theory and computational technology, providing an artistic response to the concept of the non-existence of the Big Other. The narrative is driven by a combination of a large language model (LLM) and a realistic digital character, forming a virtual agent named YELL. Through dialogue and exploration within a cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE), the audience is invited to unravel the language puzzles presented by YELL and help him overcome his life challenges. YELL is a fictional embodiment of the Big Other, modeled after the artist's real father. Through a cross-temporal interaction with this digital father, the project seeks to deconstruct complex familial relationships. By demonstrating the non-existence of the Big Other, we aim to underscore the authenticity of interpersonal emotions, positioning art as a bridge for emotional connection and understanding within family dynamics.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 19 sections, 8 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. The crisis in family relationships
  3. From the Name-of-the-Father to the Big Other
  4. Psychoanalytic art practice
  5. Background
  6. The otherness in psychoanalysis
  7. AI as the contemporary Big Other
  8. Art as a means of revelation
  9. Related Works
  10. Research Question and Methodology
  11. Implementation
  12. Unconscious subject design
  13. AI-Driven digital father
  14. Interactive story design
  15. Scene design
  16. ...and 4 more sections

Figures (8)

  • Figure 1: The hybrid immersive environment of art installation combined with a green screen and CAVE system. https://vimeo.com/1023900209
  • Figure 2: The diagram of the Analytic-Critical Method, integrating four research methods.
  • Figure 3: The character configuration interface for YELL (age 11).
  • Figure 4: Game screenshot illustrating the fragmented memory story and the lost rabbit toy as a MacGuffin.
  • Figure 5: (a) YELL character at three different life stages. (b)Visual environments of the three caves.
  • ...and 3 more figures