On the day in 1969 when America's first moon shot revolutionized space travel, artist Nam June Paik revolutionized Video art. It was the premiere of the "TV Bra," and visitors at the Corcoran witnessed Charlotte Mormon playing cello topless save for...
[more]On the day in 1969 when America's first moon shot revolutionized space travel, artist Nam June Paik revolutionized Video art. It was the premiere of the "TV Bra," and visitors at the Corcoran witnessed Charlotte Mormon playing cello topless save for the three-inch television monitors mounted on her breasts. Such comic irony can be seen in much of Paik's work, particularly in his "TV Buddha" (1974), in which a Buddha sits like a cross-legged kid, glued to its own image on a TV screen.
Paik's mastery of Video art has attracted such collaborators as composer John Cage, choreographer Merce Cunningham, and musician David Bowie. Video, because of its intermedia potential and the challenge it presents to established media and artistic institutions, fosters radical politics and experimentalism; thus, in the 1960s, it became a favorite medium of Fluxus artists. Now an icon of Video and Fluxus art, Paik is known for his conceptual clarity and accessibility and for his other technological innovations such as the video synthesizer. This device, now popular among other Video artists, can paint screens, produce images, and turn existing images inside out and upside down.
Paik has tended to be prophetic regarding the future of technology. In 1974 he coined the term "electronic superhighway" to describe his vision of linking Los Angeles to New York with "multi-layer to broadband communication networks, such as domestic satellites, wave guides, bunches of co-axial cables, and fiberoptics." Paik later went global himself, creating the satellite broadcasts "Good Morning, Mr. Orwell" (1984), "Bye Bye, Kipling" (1986), and "Wrap Around the World (1988)." He plans his final global broadcast for New Year's Eve, 1999.
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