Private Project

In A Peony's Dream

The film tells the story of “Me”, a college student studying classical literature, who fell into a dream and fell in love with the Kun opera actress, an Artificial Intelligence who plays the role of Du Liniang in “牡丹亭”（牡丹亭 / Peony Pavilion, also named the Return of Soul at the Peony Pavilion, is a romantic tragicomedy play written by dramatist Tang Xianzu in 1598). Core visuals of the short film are completed by Disco Diffusion and Mid-Journey AI, supported by human’s creative editing. The music is completed by the melody written by Ting Song and MuseNet and ToneTransfer AI.

  • Ting Song
    Director
  • Roxie Ren
    Associate Director
  • Ting Song
    Writer
  • Roxie Ren
    Editor
  • Lola Lin
    Executive Producer
  • Jingdan Yan
    Animation design
  • Linxuan Zhu
    Animation design
  • Siyu Xiong
    Animation design
  • Midjourney
    AI image generation
  • Stable Diffusion
    AI image generation
  • Ting Song
    Music Composer
  • Roxie Ren
    Sound Director
  • Jiehan Su
    English Subtitle
  • Zhenglihong2021
    Kunqu actor rehearsal recording
  • Ellis Lan
    Technical Support
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    牡丹幻梦
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 15 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 20, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    8,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    China
  • Language:
    English, Mandarin Chinese
  • Shooting Format:
    1920x1080, H.264
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Ting Song

Artist Song Ting specialises in using blockchain technology and incorporating adversarial generative neural networks for extensive training practice. The themes include contemporary philosophical speculation of science and technology, future history of science fiction and traditional Chinese national art. She focusing on on-chain AI, neuromorphic computing and information technology philosophical topics. Her 2020 individual exhibition “The Re-cyborg Cathedral and Bazaar” is Asia’s first ever blockchain- based AI art exhibition featuring artwork created by algorithm and human.In the spring of 2021, she was awarded the title of Crypto Artist of the Year 2020 by CCVALUE; in 2022, she became the second Asian artist to be included in NVIDIA's Global AI Art Gallery, and in the same year, she held a solo exhibition "Re-cyborg Art History: Physical for Digital" in New York.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

With four classical literature university teachers in my family, I needed to study classical dance and literature from childhood and received a good aesthetic education as a result. After entering Tsinghua University, I studied literature, philosophy, art history and programming, among many other subjects. It was in 2014, when the Internet was developing rapidly and many engineers had innovative ideas that were culturally groundbreaking, full of energy and vigor. What initially attracted me to the field of Cutting-edge information tech art was the beauty of information technology: not beauty because it looks beautiful, but the essential beauty and the courage to break all the barriers. Last year, the first AI artwork and NFT work auctioned by China Auction house was a prop from the immersive play "牡丹亭 Rêve" directed by me, entitled "牡丹亭 Rêve - Information Technology Penetrates 'I' ", I use the word "penetrate" to express the discomfort and the impact that information technology has brought to the humanities, as well as the new opportunities it contains that could break through. These are also the questions that my films always explore.

Mid-journey, Tone Transfers and other AI models could be Traditional Literature's beautiful dream too. Both of them are all languages for love——coding and literature.

And to see the things we cannot see through eyes, break barriers between science, art and tech is my mission. To bring a digital era's renaissance——honor our humanities but in coding way is my mission. I am still on my way.