Machine Dreaming

Li Li Ren & Xiao-Wan

Live audiovisual performance, 2024–ongoing

Machine Dreaming is a collaborative audiovisual performance by artists Li Li Ren and Xiao-Wan, in which traditional instruments are played responsively to a digital video by Ren. Using Chinese cymbals, an analogue drum machine, and a semi-hollow body guitar, the duo engage in a ceremonial, conversational exchange — sculpting a sonic atmosphere where moments of attack, suspension, and decay drift like echoes from the subconscious.

The performance unfolds within a surreal dreamscape where the boundaries between the organic and the synthetic dissolve. Drawing on AI tools and the 3D animation software Blender, Ren's visuals generate shifting terrains that are at once familiar and alien. These evolving images, centred around the narrative of a robot in slumber, immerse audiences in a seasonal passage, conjuring the collective unconscious through monolithic imagery and enveloping sound.

Machine Dreaming was first performed in Ren's London studio in late 2024, then at Sherbet Green, London, in April 2025, and at Queensrollahouse, London, in June 2026, in collaboration with Ao Lei. It offers a sensorial escape — a dream logic space where sound and image blur, and machine and human co-create a shared hallucination.