The Butterfly Dream

Yifan Pu

A visualisation of the ancient Daoist allegory, THE BUTTERFLY DREAM. In the story, the philosopher Zhuangzi dreams of becoming a butterfly. After he wakes up, he cannot figure out if he himself was a human who dreamt of being a butterfly or a butterfly who dreamt of being a human. In reality, who can be sure if we’re not still in a dream? Zhuangzi’s philosophy introduces an ontological perspective, viewing everything equally so that all beings are also non-beings. The anxiety of the gap between your actual self and your ought self thus vanishes. Two misaligned animations will be projected, one of which is reflected from a mirror.