# Metamorpheus: Interactive, Affective, and Creative Dream Narration Through Metaphorical Visual Storytelling

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.00632 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.00632/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 7 of its 91 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 1 Mar 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.09560/) (2020)
- [AffectiveSpotlight: Facilitating the Communication of Affective Responses from Audience Members during Online Presentations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.12284/) (2021)
- [Envisioning Narrative Intelligence: A Creative Visual Storytelling Anthology](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04529/) (2023)
- [Mirror Ritual: An Affective Interface for Emotional Self-Reflection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.09685/) (2020)
- [Mirror Ritual: Human-Machine Co-Construction of Emotion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.06883/) (2020)
- [Trauma-Informed Social Media: Towards Solutions for Reducing and Healing Online Harm](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05312/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Toyteller: AI-powered Visual Storytelling Through Toy-Playing with Character Symbols](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.13284/) (2025)
- [Reimagining Personal Data: Unlocking the Potential of AI-Generated Images in Personal Data Meaning-Making](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.18853/) (2025)
- [Text-conditioned State Space Model For Domain-generalized Change Detection Visual Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.08974/) (2025)
- [LLMs Behind the Scenes: Enabling Narrative Scene Illustration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.22940/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Human emotions are essentially molded by lived experiences, from which we construct personalised meaning. The engagement in such meaning-making process has been practiced as an intervention in various psychotherapies to promote wellness. Nevertheless, to support recollecting and recounting lived experiences in everyday life remains under explored in HCI. It also remains unknown how technologies such as generative AI models can facilitate the meaning making process, and ultimately support affective mindfulness. In this paper we present Metamorpheus, an affective interface that engages users in a creative visual storytelling of emotional experiences during dreams. Metamorpheus arranges the storyline based on a dream's emotional arc, and provokes self-reflection through the creation of metaphorical images and text depictions. The system provides metaphor suggestions, and generates visual metaphors and text depictions using generative AI models, while users can apply generations to recolour and re-arrange the interface to be visually affective. Our experience-centred evaluation manifests that, by interacting with Metamorpheus, users can recall their dreams in vivid detail, through which they relive and reflect upon their experiences in a meaningful way.