Play It Again, For the Next Time: Iteratively Reinterpreting Dreams with Generative AI

Yifan Zhao; Bowen Liu; Zhipeng Jia; Yuxuan Bai; Ray Lc

doi:10.1145/3775021.3787083

Play It Again, For the Next Time: Iteratively Reinterpreting Dreams with Generative AI

Yifan Zhao
, Bowen Liu
, Zhipeng Jia
, Yuxuan Bai
, Ray Lc^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Creative Media

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

Abstract

Our dreams are so fleeting that every time we try to recall them, we reinterpret them anew. To explore how human psyche can iterative reconstruct dreams to re-imagine dream content in novel contexts, we created a workflow whereby one dream recorder wrote down eight distinct dreams, and three dream interpreters use these narrative fragments to visually recreate these subconscious experiences using Generative AI (GenAI) in six rounds and two months of iterative feedback. The themes of the narratives include spying in a library, escaping from bedrooms, conquering the castle, underwater bubbles, cruising on a cargo ship, and bottled memories. We show the reinterpretations in two ways: (1) Storyboards of GenAI-created images; (2) A video game showing a scene from the "bottled memories" dream where interactions represent what the dreamer was doing in the dream. The narrative and interactive components together create an immersive backdrop to revisit the dream interpretation process.

© 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

Original language	English
Title of host publication	ICHEC Adjunct '25
Subtitle of host publication	Adjunct Proceedings of the 2025 International Conference on Human-Engaged Computing
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Number of pages	4
ISBN (Print)	979-8-4007-2312-4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3775021.3787083
Publication status	Published - Nov 2025
Event	13th International Conference on Human-Engaged Computing (ICHEC 2025) - Singapore Management University, Singapore Duration: 21 Nov 2025 → 23 Nov 2025 https://ichec.icachi.org/25/

Conference

Conference	13th International Conference on Human-Engaged Computing (ICHEC 2025)
Abbreviated title	ICHEC 2025
Place	Singapore
Period	21/11/25 → 23/11/25
Internet address	https://ichec.icachi.org/25/

Bibliographical note

Research Unit(s) information for this publication is provided by the author(s) concerned.

Publisher's Copyright Statement

This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Access Output

10.1145/3775021.3787083

494594491.pdfFinal Published version, 220 KBLicence: CC BY

Other Access Options

Check CityUHK Library

Permanent Link

Right click to copy link

Cite this

@inproceedings{a8b923b9631742259c47be84d22519f5,

title = "Play It Again, For the Next Time: Iteratively Reinterpreting Dreams with Generative AI",

abstract = "Our dreams are so fleeting that every time we try to recall them, we reinterpret them anew. To explore how human psyche can iterative reconstruct dreams to re-imagine dream content in novel contexts, we created a workflow whereby one dream recorder wrote down eight distinct dreams, and three dream interpreters use these narrative fragments to visually recreate these subconscious experiences using Generative AI (GenAI) in six rounds and two months of iterative feedback. The themes of the narratives include spying in a library, escaping from bedrooms, conquering the castle, underwater bubbles, cruising on a cargo ship, and bottled memories. We show the reinterpretations in two ways: (1) Storyboards of GenAI-created images; (2) A video game showing a scene from the {"}bottled memories{"} dream where interactions represent what the dreamer was doing in the dream. The narrative and interactive components together create an immersive backdrop to revisit the dream interpretation process. {\textcopyright} 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). ",

author = "Yifan Zhao and Bowen Liu and Zhipeng Jia and Yuxuan Bai and Ray Lc",

note = "Research Unit(s) information for this publication is provided by the author(s) concerned.; 13th International Conference on Human-Engaged Computing (ICHEC 2025), ICHEC 2025 ; Conference date: 21-11-2025 Through 23-11-2025",

year = "2025",

month = nov,

doi = "10.1145/3775021.3787083",

language = "English",

isbn = "979-8-4007-2312-4",

booktitle = "ICHEC Adjunct '25",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",

address = "United States",

url = "https://ichec.icachi.org/25/",

}

Zhao, Y, Liu, B, Jia, Z, Bai, Y & Lc, R 2025, Play It Again, For the Next Time: Iteratively Reinterpreting Dreams with Generative AI. in ICHEC Adjunct '25: Adjunct Proceedings of the 2025 International Conference on Human-Engaged Computing., 18, Association for Computing Machinery, 13th International Conference on Human-Engaged Computing (ICHEC 2025), Singapore, 21/11/25. https://doi.org/10.1145/3775021.3787083

Play It Again, For the Next Time: Iteratively Reinterpreting Dreams with Generative AI. / Zhao, Yifan; Liu, Bowen; Jia, Zhipeng et al.
ICHEC Adjunct '25: Adjunct Proceedings of the 2025 International Conference on Human-Engaged Computing. Association for Computing Machinery, 2025. 18.

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Play It Again, For the Next Time

T2 - 13th International Conference on Human-Engaged Computing (ICHEC 2025)

AU - Zhao, Yifan

AU - Liu, Bowen

AU - Jia, Zhipeng

AU - Bai, Yuxuan

AU - Lc, Ray

N1 - Research Unit(s) information for this publication is provided by the author(s) concerned.

PY - 2025/11

Y1 - 2025/11

N2 - Our dreams are so fleeting that every time we try to recall them, we reinterpret them anew. To explore how human psyche can iterative reconstruct dreams to re-imagine dream content in novel contexts, we created a workflow whereby one dream recorder wrote down eight distinct dreams, and three dream interpreters use these narrative fragments to visually recreate these subconscious experiences using Generative AI (GenAI) in six rounds and two months of iterative feedback. The themes of the narratives include spying in a library, escaping from bedrooms, conquering the castle, underwater bubbles, cruising on a cargo ship, and bottled memories. We show the reinterpretations in two ways: (1) Storyboards of GenAI-created images; (2) A video game showing a scene from the "bottled memories" dream where interactions represent what the dreamer was doing in the dream. The narrative and interactive components together create an immersive backdrop to revisit the dream interpretation process. © 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

AB - Our dreams are so fleeting that every time we try to recall them, we reinterpret them anew. To explore how human psyche can iterative reconstruct dreams to re-imagine dream content in novel contexts, we created a workflow whereby one dream recorder wrote down eight distinct dreams, and three dream interpreters use these narrative fragments to visually recreate these subconscious experiences using Generative AI (GenAI) in six rounds and two months of iterative feedback. The themes of the narratives include spying in a library, escaping from bedrooms, conquering the castle, underwater bubbles, cruising on a cargo ship, and bottled memories. We show the reinterpretations in two ways: (1) Storyboards of GenAI-created images; (2) A video game showing a scene from the "bottled memories" dream where interactions represent what the dreamer was doing in the dream. The narrative and interactive components together create an immersive backdrop to revisit the dream interpretation process. © 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105040041800&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/pubmetrics.uri?eid=2-s2.0-105040041800&origin=recordpage

U2 - 10.1145/3775021.3787083

DO - 10.1145/3775021.3787083

M3 - RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)

SN - 979-8-4007-2312-4

BT - ICHEC Adjunct '25

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

Y2 - 21 November 2025 through 23 November 2025

ER -

Play It Again, For the Next Time: Iteratively Reinterpreting Dreams with Generative AI

Abstract

Conference

Bibliographical note

Publisher's Copyright Statement

Access Output

Other Access Options

Permanent Link

Other Files and Links

Fingerprint

Cite this