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http://www.comunicativo.net/mini_galeria/images/Nam_June_Paik-portrait_gif.jpg
Nam June Paik, 1986 (Photo, Rainer Rosenow)
(Image courtesy of http://www.comunicativo.net/mini_galeria/images/Nam_June_Paik-portrait_gif.jpg)
Regarded as the 'father of video art', Nam June Paik is widely recognised for his pioneering work in the application of video and new media as an artistic platform.
Completing studies in art and music history at the University of Tokyo (1956), and further studies in music history at the University of Munich (1956-1958), Paik's foray into new media art was subsequently "influenced and encouraged by composers John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and the artist Mary Bauermeister" (Stoos, 1993: 12).
While Paik's academic focus did not seem to be on artistic practice, having wrote his thesis on composer Arnold Schoenberg, according to Hanhardt (in Nam June Paik's official website), Paik's "early interests in composition and performance... would strongly shape his ideas for mediabased art at a time when the electronic moving image and media technologies were increasingly present in our daily lives" (Nam June Paik Studios, 2004).
Paik's work blended of aspects of the experimental, sculptural and philosophical and prepared him for a prolific career during which he produced, amongst other works, notable pieces such as Magnet TV (1965), Participation TV (1963), TV cello (1971), Global groove (1973) and TV Buddha (1974). These works adapted video and television in novel ways, and Paik was accordingly recognised as having "radically developed and altered the understanding and perception of sound, performance and multimedia as artforms over the past 50 years" (QAG, 1002).
More importantly, Paik has been credited with making video art "accessible, combining high entertainment with meaningful symbolic content" (Stoos, 1993: 9). Interestingly though, Paik 'has never really agreed with the label "video art." Instead he has suggested "electronic television" as a term parallel to "electronic music" (Decker-Phillips, 1998: 11).
The significance of Paik's work soon impressed George Maciunas, founder of the neo-Dada 'Fluxus' art movement, who subsequently succeeded in persuading Paik to join him and other Fluxus artists, including Joseph Beuys, who Paik developed a "friendship and working partnership that was to last until Beuys's [sic] death in 1986" (Stoos, 1993: 9).
"Paik's early experiments in Germany were continued by Wolf Vostell but these never succeeded in having any far reaching impact" (Decker-Phillips, 1998:11)
Participation TV (1963)
TV cello (1971)
Magnet TV (1965)
Global groove (1973)
TV Buddha (1974)
Nam June Paik's Official Website
Nam June Paik's Official Website - Exhibitions
Nonlinear history of new media
Decker-Phillips, E. (1998) Paik Video, New York: Barrytown. ISBN 188644935X.
Guggenheim Museum (2000) The worlds of Nam June Paik [Online] Available: http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/past_exhibitions/paik/ [Accessed 25 Oct 2004]
Nam June Paik Studios (2004) Nam June Paik's official website [Online] Available: http://paikstudios.com [Accessed 25 Oct 2004]
Stooss, T. & Kellein, T. (ed.) (1993) Nam June Paik: Video time- video space, New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0810937298.
QAG (2002) Asia-Pacific triennial of contemporary art: Nam June Paik [Online] Available: http://www.qag.qld.gov.au/apt2002/pdf/APT_Nam_June_Paik_New.pdf [Accessed 24 Oct 2004]
Wikipedia (2004) The free encyclopedia [Online] Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page [Accessed 25 Oct 2004]
--Ryan Lee 08:18, 28 Oct 2004 (EST)
