Tseng: In my experience, the art educational system in Taiwan is rigid and heavily research-based. There is a lot of written discourse and as such artwork produced under this system. What I meant by this educational system is the so-called academy or institution. There was once a French curator who asked me why don't I leave the academy and work on my own. My answer was that the best working environment is still within the academy. It is a huge protective net, although it too is imperfect. There are many excellent artists that have left the academy, but their identities and work have become questionable. In Taiwan, a reality beyond the institution can be ruthless to independent artists, I think this is true for beyond r other countries too.

Ying: (afterthoughts about this response)
I began to agree with Tseng. Artists could work individually, but in most cases, especially now, more artists are relying on cross disciplinary collaborations instead and support from institutional structures to recognize this practice. The best environment to promote such collaborations still remains within the academic domain.

Tseng: My understanding of video art matured after graduate school; whereas before I was mainly making experimental films (although it should be noted that I still do this.) The current experimental film scene in Taiwan is presently in a terrible state. The system of Taiwanese film is by no means perfect or complete. Many film crews are set up at the last minute. Additionally, certain film companies or organizations have monopolization power over the film market and this can impact a work's delivery, message and style. Further to this situation, the Taiwanese market also favors heavily animation and documentary films. As a result, artistic films usually suffer from low acceptance and/or reorganization. That situation is exceptionally really frustrating.

Ying: (afterthoughts about this response)
I do think the concepts are a universal phenomenon within artistic film productions. The main reason could be that the characteristics of artistic films are very conceptual and lack the conventional narratives thereby making such productions more abstract to general audience. As a result, such films receive poorer reception from the general public due to lack of interest. Another reason could be due to the fact that mainstream films, such as the Hollywood or blockbuster productions, are well-budgeted and targeted as entertainment vehicles whereas artistic films can lack in this area and focus. This reliance on a commercial narrative and paradigm can in turn make audiences less interested and/or experienced in viewing experimental films.

Tseng: In graduate school, students learned a lot from each other as well as from instructors. I had more access to the video work and began to investigate this form further. I learned technical and conceptual techniques related how to deconstruct and reframe images.

Even though there is a large amount of videos on the market now, I am not satisfied with the current state of video productions in Taiwan, because few of these works deal with issues from artists.

There are two reasons why videos are produced in such huge volumes over here. Video equipment is much easier and cheaper to acquire in Taiwan than professional film equipment. On the other hand, videos can be produced much faster than other media, such as painting which takes a long time. In part, this is why video art has become an over-produced recently.

Within this production circuit, many works only fulfill the general expectations of the demand for video, yet failing often to explore other themes such as the artist's unique perspective. I am stubborn with my perception and artistic message. To be more precise, I believe in bringing intuition into my creative process, the transfer of a cognitive intuition and processes to images on screen --this is the most important part of my practice. I must insist on this process.

Ying: In addition to your creative process, I would like to know why you have selected to bring your works on-line. Is this a main distribution model for your work and/or the platform in which you want the work to be seen? Alternatively, am I only seeing a small fragment of something that would be displayed in a gallery setting? Can you explain further?