Video Art Research
Born in Seoul, Paik had four older brothers and a father who worked as a textile manufacturer. As he was growing up, he was trained as a classical pianist. In 1950, Paik and his family had to flee from their home in Korea, during the Korean War. His family first fled to Hong Kong, but later moved to Japan, for reasons unknown. Six years later, he graduated from the University of Tokyo. He wrote a thesis on composer Arnold Schoenberg.
He moved to Germany to study History of Music at Munich University. While studying in Germany, Paik met the composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage and the conceptual artists Joseph Beuys and Wolf Vostell. Paik was inspired to work with electronic art.
Nam June Paik then began participating in the Neo-Dada art movement, known as Fluxus, which was inspired by the composer John Cage, and his use of everyday sounds and noises in his music. He made his big debut at an exhibition known as, Exposition of Music-Electronic Television, in which he scattered televisions everywhere, and used magnets to alter or disort their images.
In 1964, Paik moved to New York, and began working with classical cellist Charlotte Moorman, to combine his video, music, and performance. In the work TV Cello, the pair stacked televisions on top one another, so that they formed the shape of an actual cello. When Moorman drew her bow across the "cello," images of both her playing, and images of other cellists playing appeared on the screens. In 1965, Sony introduced the Portapak. With this, Paik could both move and record things, for it was the first portable video and audio recorder. From there, Paik became an international celebrity, known for his creative and entertaining works.
In a notorious 1967 incident, Charlotte Moorman was arrested for going topless while performing in Paik’s Opera Sextronique. Two years later, in 1969, they performed TV Bra for Living Sculpture, in which Charlotte wore a bra with small TV screens over her breasts[3]. Paik developed the idea of an "Electronic Superhighway" as early as 1974 in his text "Media Planning for the Postindustrial Society"[4]. Many of Paik's early works and writings are collected in a volume edited by Judson Rosebush titled Nam June Paik: Videa 'n' Videology 1959-1973, published by the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, in 1974.
In another work, Something Pacific (1986), a statue of a sitting Buddha faces its image on a closed circuit television. (The piece is part of the Stuart Collection of public art at the University of California, San Diego.) Another piece, Positive Egg, displays a white egg on a black background. In a series of video monitors, increasing in size, the image on the screen becomes larger and larger, until the egg itself becomes an abstract, unrecognizable shape. In Video Fish[5], from 1975, a series of aquariums arranged in a horizontal line contain live fish swimming in front of an equal number of monitors which show video images of other fish.
Paik’s 1995 piece “Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii”, on permanent display at the Lincoln Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is a stunning example of his cultural criticism. With this piece, Paik offers up his commentary about an American culture obsessed with television, the moving image, and bright shiny things.
My Personal View:
I think it is interesting how Paik was influenced artistically from the movement or idea of big brother or other government conspiracies. His artist achievement not only redefined different genres, he also added a little development of his own in the Neo-Data movement. It seemed as though the idea of beautiful was very rugged and joking back in the times Paik was prominent. It is good that he had a knowledgeable background of music and performance as well, and it seemed that his versatility in this knowledge helped him to create the interesting works he has now. It also seemed that in his time period, people were readily able to rebel against higher authority and therefore his art shows that it is very mocking if not sarcastic in nature, giving the viewers or audience an interesting piece each time, to look at.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nam_June_Paik
Book reference: Nam June Paik video time, video space,
posted by Chris Carter: @ 12:51 PM
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