- 25/02/2013
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
Nam June Paik is widely known all over the world as a pioneer in the video art’s field in the 1960s. He was influenced greatly by the experimental music of John Cage and the creative theatrical experiments of the Fluxus group. He produced video sculptures, installations and performances via combining his art and music interests with technological facilities of that time. Later on he gained certain experience in using of other technologies, such as sound, lasers and computers.
Nam June Paik was born in 1932 in Seoul, Korea. He graduated from the University of Tokyo where he studied art history, music history and philosophy . In 1956 he went to Germany (where he met Karlheinz Stockhausen and Arnold Shonberg) to continue his study of music history. In 1961 he met Fluxus founder George Maciunas. Paik participated in many European Fluxus performances, actions and events. His first exhibition featuring the series of “altered” TV sets took place at the Gallerie Parnass Wuppertal in West Germany in 1964 and was called “Exposition of Electronic Music-Electronic Television”. A few years later Paik participated in the landmark exhibition “TV as a Creative Medium” at the Howard Wise Gallery.
In 1969 the first Synthesizer as WGBH was designed and built in Boston by Paik and electronics engineer Shuya Abe. Many Paik’s works, like “Global Groove” (1973) and “A Tribute to John Cage” (1973) were produced via special program at WNET’s TV Lab.
Paik’s worldwide popularity is primarily based on his installations of multiple televisions, as in his media tower of 1003 televisions, “The More the Better”, for the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988, nevertheless it is true to say that he discovered most aspects of video art.
During his lifetime Paik was searching for original and humanistic ways to make the technological progress of the 20th century useful for art. There can be mentioned several particular features of his basic style: the combination of past and present; wide usage of modern technologies( “moving painting” and “visual music”, creating a “brush made of light” to make an “electric canvas”, etc.) ; making visual art and music the one whole; and successful attempts to diminish the existing barriers between “high” and “low” art. Moreover, Paik used to pay much attention to the role of art in globalization. He showed the events of everyday life of people of different origins and cultures to both underline the uniqueness of each of them and the common features and traits of character all the people on the Earth possess. He depicted different pieces of material from all over the world through his taped work: A Korean drummer in action, Japanese Pepsi commercials and go-go dancers.
Nam June Paik was really great and prominent artist, which faced many challenges and made astonishing discoveries in the field of video, TV and music art. At his funeral in 2006 in New York people honored him with a remembrance of his first famous event by cutting off each other’s ties.
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