Negative Shanshui: Real-time Interactive Ink Painting Synthesis

This paper presents Negative Shanshui, a real-time interactive AI synthesis approach that reinterprets classical Chinese landscape ink painting, i.e., shanshui, to engage with ecological crises in the Anthropocene. Negative Shanshui optimizes a fine-tuned Stable Diffusion model for real-time inferences and integrates it with gaze-driven inpainting, frame interpolation; it enables dynamic morphing animations in response to the viewer’s gaze and presents as an interactive virtual reality (VR) experience. The paper describes the complete technical pipeline, covering the system framework, optimization strategies, gaze-based interaction, and multimodal deployment in an art festival. Further analysis of audience feedback collected during its public exhibition highlights how participants variously engaged with the work through empathy, ambivalence, and critical reflection.