At the heart of The Dysfunctional Philosopher lies a carefully fragmented philosophical text, exploring the gradual dissolution of meaning, identity, and language. Presented as individually handwritten fragments, each paired with a unique jazz guitar phrase, the text is deconstructed and recombined anew at every playback—never repeating its exact narrative path, yet always converging toward the same melancholic realization.
Despite continuous reconfiguration, each iteration of the piece inevitably guides the listener toward the same reflective mood: a sense of solitude, disintegration, and quiet resonance. Interspersed throughout the sequence are brief intervals of silence—empty screens and corresponding silent sound files—emulating the rhythm and breathing spaces of a contemplative reading.
Beneath this shifting textual landscape, an organic, rhizomatically composed ambient jazz accompaniment forms spontaneously at each playback. Drawing from multiple folders of sonic material, the underlying textures recombine unpredictably, creating a fluid and ever-changing emotional backdrop.
Instead of telling a story in a traditional sense, The Dysfunctional Philosopher constructs and deconstructs itself continuously, offering a resonant mood rather than narrative clarity—each experience simultaneously different and familiar.
Technical description
Upon initiating playback, the piece randomly selects and sequentially presents text fragments, each visually represented by handwritten images. Every textual fragment is paired directly with a specific jazz guitar phrase, which together form momentary melodic identities. Five silent intervals—both visually and sonically empty—introduce breathing spaces analogous to pauses in reading.
Simultaneously, the ambient accompaniment emerges through a rhizomatic composition method, coded as follows: The system randomly selects and layers sound fragments from three separate sound-folders. Each folder independently contributes continuously looping audio segments that overlap and interact dynamically, forming a constantly evolving soundscape. Thus, each playback results in a unique sonic texture and temporal unfolding, with no iteration identical to the previous.
All the listener needs to do is press “Start,” setting in motion a process of spontaneous recombination that nevertheless leads toward a familiar emotional destination.
Why Deconstruction?
Deconstructing a text is more than simply fragmenting or reordering words; it is an intentional disruption of meaning-making, designed to expose how meaning itself emerges and dissolves in context. In The Dysfunctional Philosopher, textual deconstruction serves as an aesthetic research method, highlighting the fluidity and fragility of philosophical insight. By continually rearranging text fragments, pairing them with musical counterparts, and inserting deliberate pauses, the piece evokes reflection on how understanding—and misunderstanding—forms in the interplay of language, sound, and silence.
This approach aligns closely with rhizomatic theories articulated by Deleuze and Guattari: knowledge, meaning, and emotion do not flow through linear channels but branch unpredictably, connecting disparate nodes and resonances. The piece embodies this concept directly, dissolving fixed interpretations while retaining a consistent affective core. Deconstruction thus becomes both a method of inquiry and a creative gesture—revealing the subtle tensions between certainty and ambiguity, and inviting audiences to experience firsthand the perpetual collapse and renewal of meaning.
The original text for comparison
The Dysfunctional Philosopher
In the end, everything they said about the dysfunctional philosopher was true.
He really had lost it, he really had disconnected himself from the herd and no longer identified himself with anything.
He no longer sensed the mesmerizing scent of spring nor did he regret the absence of beauty as he doubted it had ever really been there.
He rejected all evil as a mental construct and deemed a cure for cancer unobtainable, as to him human self preservation logically would render that an unsolvable paradox.
In fact it was the unsolvable paradox that had made him snap, or the brief epiphany that two contradicting truths are provable true and provable untrue at the same time rendering Truth itself irrelevant.
That last sensation that meaning possesses meaning and therefore truth had evaporated his mind slowly and unnoticeably.
It was not as he felt that times had surpassed him, he was very much a product of his time, dedicating every second of his existence to dismantling beliefs and providing proof of truth.
He in contradiction to his peers had not bought into a plan B a fact that had left him defenseless and in bitter solitude.
For a time he saw his solitude as a blessing, a liberation from expectations including his own and thus true freedom. Deep down he probably already knew he had set on a dangerous path, but it made him feel alive, it made him feel that he could accomplish anything he’d set his mind to…
For a time he shared his blessing and newly found freedom and most of whom he shared it with was in awe, a means of freedom had been lying under their noses for so long and they hadn’t even realized it was there.
Gradually he found his freedom to be conceptual, meaning his concepts would define whether he was free or not.
He had proven his own blessings invalid but by then he had already been sucked so far into his own insights that he was no longer able to extract himself.
He could not unsee what he could not bare to behold, nor could he explain it to anybody. It was as if his words would transform into mindless nonsense whenever he tried, or more accurately whenever somebody tried to fathom his findings all meaning was merely a reflection of his own reasoning
By realizing this he was also realizing that he had lost his voice and with that his legitimacy. Every insight he or his giant predecessors had ever realized would resonate falsely by the simple fact that all receiving ends would in fact be concepts themselves and therefore unable to resonate freely with anything extrinsic at all.
But everything they ever said about the dysfunctional philosopher really was true.
Authored by Tao Højgaard AKA Mute State, August 2017