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TV cello
1971, Nam June Paik.
Image courtesy of Walker Art Center: Collections and Resources
TV cello (1971) began a series of successful and occasionally controversial collaborations between video artist Nam June Paik and cellist/performance artist Charlotte Moorman. The instrument was first unveiled in Paik's Concerto for TV Cello and Video Tape. It was Paik's intention to create "an instrument that could produce pictures as well as sound" (Stooss, 1993: 134), once again merging technologies and reinterpreting the ways in which humans interact with them.
The work consisted of television sets mounted upon each other to resemble the body of a cello. Affixed to this creation was the neck, string and bridge of a real cello, and together with electronic pickups, it was playable. In addition to producing sound, the pickups of the cello also transmitted electronic signals to the television screens, which not only played live images of the performance as it was connected to video cameras, but also other prerecorded images as well.
On an interesting note, "[b]ecause of different television standards, Moorman could not play her TV cello while performing in Europe with the American NTSC-System unless she and Paik decided to work only with a closed-circuit camera" (Decker-Phillips, 1998: 127)
Participation TV (1963)
Magnet TV (1965)
Global groove (1973)
TV Buddha (1974)
Nam June Paik's Official Website
Nam June Paik's Official Website - Exhibitions
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]
Liggett, L. (2004) Paik, Nam June: US video artist [Online] Available: http://www.museum.tv/ETV/P/htmlP/paiknamjun/paiknamjun.htm [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]
Walker Art Center (2004) Collections and resources: TV cello [Online] Available: http://collections.walkerart.org/item/enlarge_fs.html?type=object&id=881&image_num=1 [Accessed 25 Oct 2004]
Wikipedia (2004) The free encyclopedia [Online] Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page [Accessed 25 Oct 2004]
--Ryan Lee 11:31, 28 Oct 2004 (EST)
