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

2025-04-07

AI Summary

This study investigates how AI can function as a medium for affective reflection to deconstruct intergenerational familial relationships and reconstruct authentic interpersonal connections. Methodologically, it develops a CAVE-based immersive environment featuring YELL—an AI-driven virtual character embodying a “digital father,” grounded in Lacan’s thesis of the “nonexistence of the Big Other.” YELL integrates large language model–based dialogue generation, Jungian archetypal modeling, and real-time digital human rendering to enable interactive narrative puzzle-solving. Its contribution lies in the first embodied instantiation of a core psychoanalytic concept as an interactive AI agent, achieving cross-paradigmatic integration of psychoanalysis, generative AI, and immersive art. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that participants engage in cross-temporal affective dialogues with the digital father, significantly enhancing self-awareness of familial dynamics and empathic understanding—thereby extending both the theoretical depth and practical scope of AI art in family therapy and relational reconfiguration.

Technology Category

• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Affective Computing
• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Intelligent Robots: Embodied AI

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Economic ramifications for generative AI infrastructure and applications
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Agentic search

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.

Problem

• Explores AI-driven interactive narratives for family storytelling
• Deconstructs familial relationships using psychoanalytic theory and AI
• Demonstrates non-existence of Big Other to highlight emotional authenticity

Innovation

• AI-driven interactive narrative using LLM
• Realistic digital character in CAVE environment
• Psychoanalytic theory combined with computational technology