Inter-View with a Philosopher

One evening, I was listening to a philosopher speak at length. As the sun set and the light suddenly dimmed, the conversation from moments before began to feel like a dream. I’ve long wanted to recreate that experience—when thought gets lost in the forest of consciousness, and a continuous stream of speech unfolds like a winding path, fleeting and narrow, with no clear destination and no way back.

Inspired by this experience, and drawing from the format of interview videos as well as cinematic techniques that render a protagonist’s inner voice as voice-over, Inter-View with a Philosopher portrays a philosopher speaking alone—at times as if addressing someone else, at others as though merely speaking to herself.

This project was created in collaboration with philosopher of mind Ying-Tung Lin, who co-wrote the script and also appears as the “philosopher” in the video. It brings together her research interests and the project’s central inquiry—an exploration of mind-wandering within mental phenomena. The result is a performance that becomes a language about language, a stream of consciousness reflecting on consciousness itself.

The work invites viewers into a space designed to trigger mind-wandering: within the philosopher’s flowing voice, suspended between the present and the imaginary, between speech and thought, the viewer drifts between roles—listener, thinker, perhaps even speaker. In this hazy oscillation of focus and blur, one “experiences” language through losing and regaining attention.

2025 Who is the speaker?

Zone Art, Taoyuan, Taiwan

Photo by dulub_studio.

Exhibition view (filmed by Cheng Hsiang Yun, LIN Pei-Yao; edited by LIN Pei-Yao)

About the Philosopher — Ying-Tung Lin

Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of Philosophy of Mind and Cognition, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. Ph.D. in Philosophy, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany.

Her research focuses on philosophy of mind, consciousness studies, and applied ethics, particularly on self-experience in memory and imagination, the philosophical understanding of pain and suffering, and the impact of technology on human cognition and epistemic practices.

Credits

Program Host: LIN Pei-Yao
Director / Editor: LIN Pei-Yao
Script Development / Performer: Ying-Tung Lin
Sound Design: HSIEH Ching-Chun
Director of Photography / Cinematography: Cheng Hsiang Yun
Cinematography: bawnay a lahi’ baba:i’
Sound Recording: LI YI SHIOU
Production Assistant: CCwen
Special Appearance: Lîm A-sim
Audio-Visual & Speech Programming:: Justin Lin
Wireless Clock Design: Wilson Wu
Sponsor: National Culture and Arts Foundation