_Nam June Paik: Video Innovations _
By: J. Loyd
Nam June Paik was born in Seoul, Korea on July 20, 1932. He was the fifth and
youngest child of a textile merchant. In 1947, at the age of 14, he studied
piano and composition with two of Korea's foremost composers. The family moved
to Tokyo, Japan in 1950 to avoid the havoc of the Korean War. Paik studied
music, history, art history, and philosophy at the University of Tokyo from
1953 to 1956. He did his graduate dissertation on SchoenbergIn 1956, he
moved to Germany to pursue his interest in avant-garde music. He studied music
history under Thrasybulos Georgiades at the University of Munich and
composition under Wolfgang Fortner at the Hochschule fqr Musik. He also
attended classes under Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luigi Nono, David Tudor, and
John Cage. Paik lived in Cologne for the next five years and then returned to
Japan for a short time to conduct experiments with electromagnets and color TV
sets. In 1964, Paik moved to New York and still resides there today While he
lived in Korea, Paik had become familiar with the work of Schoenberg. Paik was
interested in Schoenberg above all others because of his radical compositions.
They reflected the social atmosphere of Seoul at the time. In 1947, Paik had
only one piece of Schoenbergs work. It took Paik two years to convince a
record shop owner to let him listen to what was probably the only Schoenberg
record in Korea. Paik had only two compositions by which to judge his guru.
Then one day in Japan, in 1951, Paik heard a third piece on NHK Radio.
Another of Paiks great influences was John Cage, whom he met in Germany.
Meeting Cage, a student of Schoenberg, was a turning point in Paiks life.
Paiks piece Zen for Film was definitely influenced by Cages 4 33 , the
silent piece. Cage was devoted to sounds, but Paik was devoted to objects, yet
Cages influence is evident in all of Paiks work Joseph Beuys, like Cage,
played an important role in influencing the direction of Paiks video work.
Paiks portraits of Beuys constitute a significant body of work. They are more
than a homage to Beuys, they are an affirmation of video as a new sensorium
that expands the fleeting image on the television As Paiks education was
furthered, he became a key in Fluxus art. In 1961, he met Fluxus founder
George Maciunas, which began his participation in Fluxus concerts. The visual
characteristics of Paiks concerts gained significance equal to that of the
music with his one man show Exposition of MusicElectronic Television in 1963.
It included the skull of an ox, 13 pianos, 13 television sets, a mannequin,
and several sound producing objects Upon his return to Japan in 1963, he
found that he could manipulate the television screens with magnets. He began
to conduct experiments with the help of an electronics engineer, Shuya Abe.
These experiments were the groundwork for Participation TV, an active viewer
piece. Abe also assisted Paik in the production of Robot K-456 In 1965, Paik
bought one of the first Sony video recorders sold and began to create video
art. Works such as Zen for Film and Global Groove were the results of Paiks
newfound medium. In 1970, Paik and Abe invented a video synthesizer, which
made it possible to manipulate colors, shapes, and movement sequences on
videotapes and television programs. Paik has been given the title of Father
of Video Art, as he was the first to use video and television as a viable
medium The Opera Sextronique was one of Paiks happenings with Charlotte
Moorman, the cellist. It included Moorman wearing a battery powered bra with
televisions covering her nipples, and the Young Penis Symphony, consisting ten
young men sticking their penises through a paper curtain in time to the music.
Opera Sextronique was one of Paiks attempts to integrate sex into his work.
Paik once told Manfred Eichel that The five principles of media are: Sex,
Violence, Greed, Vanity and Deception. Paik used these principles heavily in
his earliest works, thus the concept of the Opera Sextronique. In the Opera
for one act, Moorman was to perform topless; however the performance was
interrupted by police, and resulted in the arrest of Moorman and Paik. The
resulting trial was a damper on his sex into musical performance campaign.
Global Groove is a video piece with surreal visuals and neo-Dada ideas. Paik
manipulates multicultural elements, art-world figures, and pop iconography. He
appropriates Pepsi commercials and integrates them with images of contemporary
performers such as John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and the Living Theatre
Dancers. He synthesizes images of Charlotte Moormans Opera performances and
distorts Richard Nixons face. Global Groove is Paiks first work with
state-of-the-art editing techniques, and was one of a series of innovative and
influential videotapes. Global Groove allowed him to create a vehicle for the
short bits he had produced and to expand the audience for video art. Global
Groove had a profound influence on video, television, and contemporary art. It
has set a standard for a new generation of video artists with its
state-of-the-art technological innovations and entertaining visuals.
Something Pacific was Paiks first permanent outdoor installation that
relates specifically to a site. This site includes the lobby of the UCSD Media
Center as well as the surrounding lawns. On the lawns, several ruined TVs are
embedded in the ground along with Buddha sculptures and a Sony Watchman is
paired with a miniature of Rodins Thinker. A lively interactive installation
of televisions is in the lobby. Here viewers are able to manipulate the images
from Paiks videos and MTV broadcasts. This piece contrasts two very different
experiencescontemplation and reaction. The broken sets were once removed up
by a group of community service workers who thought they were trash, but
employees of the university were able to restore them to their rightful
places In a series that started with Robot K-456, which walked, talked, and
defecated beans, Paik used electronics to create humanoid forms. The members
of the Family of Robot, instead of the mobile form of robot, are televisions
stacked up in human forms. These new robots are architectural in nature,
animated by the videos, which play on each screen. Family of Robot: High-tech
Child consists of 13 modern televisions which flash synthesized images at a
rapid pace. Paiks child represents the child of the future, and the
present, who has been raised with television as his/her main source of
entertainment and information. The child stands on an older model TV
illustrating the roots of television, and takes a classical Greek pose seen in
sculptures of young men symbolizing the artistic roots of the piece. High-tech
Child encompasses the elements of both humor and irony found in much of Paiks
work Megatron/Matrix is a mesmerizing multimedia installation consisting of
a total of 215 monitors. Megatron is a 150 monitor, billboard-sized wall of
flashing images forming a visual commotion. Matrix consists of 65 monitors and
adjoins Megatron. The video and animations include iconic images from both
East and West, pictures from the Olympic games in Seoul, scenes of Korean
rituals, David Bowie concert footage, and computer generated animations. Every
now and then the entire wall becomes the flag of Canada, Finland or Japan. All
of the monitors operate independently, but share multiple random combinations
of video. All of this is set to audio ranging from ritual chants to rock, and
is controlled by a complicated setup of disc players, computers, and digital
sequences. Its grand scale and technological prowess, says NMAA chief
curator Jaquelyn Serrver, demonstrate Paiks extraordinary capacity to move
video from the sphere of the ordinary to the limitless domain of the
imagination. He has transformed television into a form of artistic expression
particularly suited to our times. Paiks last public performance in 1997 at
the Anthology Film Archive in New York City was his piece Coyote 3. The
performance starts with Paik seated at a piano with singer, Dina Emerson, and
dancer, Simone Forti, standing beside him. Emerson steps up to the microphone
and begins to imitate the sound of alarms and sirens, while a video projection
of Beuys growling and speaking is played. Paik accompanies the video on the
piano, playing broken melodies, sometimes singing along. These fragments of
music are as diverse as Paiks influences. All the while Simone Forti is
dancing and singing. At the end Paik turns the piano over until it breaks
apart. The lights go out and a laser beam flashed across the stage while the
three performers smoke cigarettes. There is a lot happening on stage and yet
very little, normal motions take on other significance, time has become
fleeting and geologic. The irrational is given as much importance as the
rational, says Jonathan Huffman, Paik continues to push for new territories,
continuing to redefine situations and new technologies. Paik has made the
world of television and video art his own. His broad array of work encompasses
several disciplines from composing to satellite art. Paiks varied interests
have helped make his art the first of its kind. Paik said of his work, My
experimental TV is not always interesting, but not always uninteresting, like
nature, which is beautiful, not because it changes beautifully, but because it
changes. Paik is a visionary artist, he doesnt confine himself to the
standards of the art world, but goes outside of them to find new applications
of art to technology. Television has become a humanistic tool in the hands of
this artist. His works are always about the sensual aspects of visual response
and the joys of watching an image that will disappear. Paiks realization of
the limitless potential that lay within the average television set and his
sense of what he could do with it has gained him the distinction as the
Father of Video Art.
_Bibliography _
Bibliography Bolz, Diane, "A Video Visionary," Smithsonian Magazine, October
1997, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian
/issues97/oct97/hlhts_oct97.html. Fineberg, Johnathan, Art Since 1940:
Strategies of Being, New Jersey, 1995. Kranz, Stewart, "Interview with Dr.
Billy Kluver" in Science and Technology in the Arts:A Tour Through the Realm
of Science/Art, eds. Margaret Holton and Elizabeth S. Fowler, New York, 1974,
pp. 53-55. Lovejoy, Margot, Postmodern Current: Art and Artists in the Age of
Electronic Media, New Jersey, 1992. Paik, Nam June, Video Time- Video Space,
New York, 1993. Smagula, Howard, Currents: Contemporary Directory in the
Visual Arts, New Jersey,1989. http://www.plexus.org/morgan/paik.html
http://www.roland-collection.com
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