Dreams Dyed Blue

Inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s childhood classic “The Little Prince”, "Dreams Dyed Blue" is an immersive audiovisual hip-hop/electroacoustic performance that explores the beauty, fear, adventure, sadness and loneliness of self-discovery, as told through the story of a small child’s journey through the stars. Through a synesthetic relationship of spoken-word lyricism, electroacoustic improvisation and dynamic projected visuals, this introspective performance reconciles the inner-workings of one’s unique imagination and the remembrance of loved ones lost to the universe around us.

Timothy “Ill Poetic” Gmeiner is a San Diego, California-based interdisciplinary artist-educator, emcee and music producer. He has worked as the Assistant Producer/Director at the Qualcomm Institute’s Audio Spatialization Lab and is currently a PhD candidate in UC-San Diego’s computer music program where he focuses on spatialized and interactive compositions in virtual reality, audiovisual live performance, and large-scale real-time reactive installations.

His most recent works include the interactive VR composition “Pigments of Imagination”, which won an award for best demo presentation at the ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST) 2023, and “Dreams Dyed Blue”, an immersive electroacoustic/hip-hop concert with selections featuring at the NYCEMF and the Spatial Audio Gathering (Leeds, UK). He has toured internationally and garnered public acclaim for his work from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and more. He has collaborated with or had production featured under acts such acts as King Britt, Chris Orrick, Illogic, Slum Village, Steph Richards and Blitz Bazawule. He has taught courses on hip-hop at UC-San Diego and is currently a professor of music production and entrepreneurship at San Diego City College.

www.soundrzn.com | IG @illpoetic513 | LinkedIn: Timothy Gmeiner

Mingyong Cheng (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and creative technologist from Beijing, based in California. She works at the intersection of generative AI, computational media, and environmental research. She holds dual BFAs (CUC), an MFA (Duke), and is completing a PhD in Art Practice and Art History (UC San Diego), focusing on interdisciplinary environmental studies.Her work spans visual arts, filmmaking, and computational media, creating immersive installations, interactive environments, and real-time audiovisual systems using generative AI, sensing technologies, and spatial media. She views AI as a creative collaborator, working with curators, choreographers, composers, and researchers on complex public media systems. She has led commissioned projects for the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA), MOPA, and Jacob’s Pillow Doris Duke Theater, overseeing system design and installation. Grounded in "Speculative Ecology," her research examines generative AI's role in ecological imagination, cultural memory, and embodied experience. Her work has been presented internationally at ACM SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH Asia, Creativity and Cognition (ACM C&C), NeurIPS, ISEA, and the IEEE CVPR AI Art Gallery. Honors include the Gold Muse Design Award in AI, the Speculative Futures Digital Arts Student Competition award, and the IEEE TCPAMI Art Award.

IG: @mingyong_art Linkedin: Mingyong Cheng