Nam June Paik

From our cool/alternate lecture, I was most interested in Fluxus. Fluxus was a movement created a by a group of avant-garde artists, primarily based in New York City in the early 1960’s. (Fluxus, no date) George Maciunas is known to be the founder and describes fluxus as ‘anti-art’. (DiTolla, T, 2018) Being a fluxus artist meant that you were against the idea that anyone could judge your art the belief that anyone could be a part of fluxus and make whatever art they want and it would be considered good art no matter the outcome because all that mattered was the creative process. Artists would use a range of personal styles such as performance art, video art, sculptures, installations etc. that reflected the meaning of the movement. (Fluxus, no date) Nam June Paik was a member of Fluxus. (Herzogenrath, W, 2011)

(POR QUE VOCÊ PRECISA SABER QUEM FOI NAM JUNE PAIK, 2017)

Paik was an artist and is considered to be the founder of video art. In the 1999 May issue of ARTnews, Pablo Paik was listed under the century’s 25 most influential artists along with Picasso, Marcel Duchamp and Robert Rauschenburg and is said to love ‘anti-technological technology’. (Herzogenrath, W, 2011)

In 1963, he held an exhibition named Exposition of Music – Electronic Television where he created electronic paintings from “Four ‘prepared’ pianos, mechanical sound objects, several record and tape installations, twelve modified TV sets, and the head of a freshly slaughtered ox above the entrance.”. This exhibition was seen as the starting point of his video art career using new media. (Nam June Paik, Exposition of Music – Electronic Television, no date)

(Nam June Paik’s Distortions, 2017)

One of his most notable works was his 160cm robot, Robot K-456, in 1964. He collaborated with the engineer Shuya Abe to construct the robot which could actually walk and play music and ‘excrete white beans’. The robot was first shown in 1965 and then again in 1982 where it was restored as it could no longer stand upright, so Paik walked it on Madison Avenue and purposefully crashed it into a car to stage the ‘first accident of the twenty-first century’. (Herzogenrath, W, 2011)

(Artsy, no date)

He also created the installation Electronic Superhighway which illustrates ‘a diverse nation through media technology’ and is ‘constructed with 336 televisions, 50 DVD players, 3750 feet of cable, and 575 feet of multicoloured neon tubing.’. (Public Delivery, 2018)

(Fagen, A, 2008)

From 1965 to the 1974, he managed to make his first video tapes and first video synthesizer to making significant multi-monitor installations like TV Garden 1974. (Herzogenrath, W, 2011)

(Wild, M, no date)

From 1977 to the mid 90s, he created figurative video sculptures as well as multi-screen walls such as Beuys Voice and began using lasers and video technology. (Herzogenrath, W, 2011)

Rama Allen uses concepts similar to Paek in his advertising work today. Allen is an Executive Creative Director at The Mill New York and directs interactive and immersive experiences on film. He said "I love smashing together emotion, filmic dream states, technology and wonder,". (Gianatasio, D, 2015) Allen created a visual installation for Red Bull Music Academy to show the visual language of spiritual jazz. The installation involved live performances by three generations of jazz artists to “blend the past, present, analog and digital by combining a live performed liquid light show and generative art software driven by the musician’s audio input.” (Allen, R, no date)

Fluxus, (no date). Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/fluxus (Accessed: 04/12/18)

DiTolla, T, (2018) Fluxus Movement Overview and Analysis. Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/movement-fluxus.htm (Accessed: 04/12/18)

Herzogenrath, W, (2011), When the future was now. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/when-future-was-now (Accessed: 04/12/18) POR QUE VOCÊ PRECISA SABER QUEM FOI NAM JUNE PAIK, (2017), Image [Online]. Available at: http://www.oifuturo.org.br/noticias/por-que-voce-precisa-saber-quem-foi-nam-june-paik/ (Accessed: 04/12/18)

Nam June Paik, Exposition of Music – Electronic Television, (no date). Available at: http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/exposition-of-music/ (Accessed: 04/12/18)

Nam June Paik’s Distortions, (2017), Image [Online]. Available at: http://lossyculture.altervista.org/nam-june-paik-distortions/ (Accessed: 04/12/18)

Artsy, (no date), Image [Online]. Available at: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/nam-june-paik-robot-k-456 (Accessed: 04/12/18)

Public Delivery, (2018), The Legendary Electronic Superhighway – Nam June Paik. Available at: https://publicdelivery.org/nam-june-paik-electronic-superhighway/ (Accessed: 04/12/18)

Fagen, A, (2008), Electronic Superhighway [Online]. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/afagen/2411637349 (Accessed: 04/12/18)

Wild, M, (no date), Image [Online]. Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/520517669421452241/?lp=true (Accessed: 04/12/18)

Gianatasio, D, (2015), 10 Visual Artists Who Are Changing the Way We See Advertising, and The World. Available at: https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/10-visual-artists-who-are-changing-way-we-see-advertising-and-world-165988/ (Accessed: 04/12/18)

Allen, R, (no date), Red Bull Spiritual Jazz Installation. Available at: https://rama-allen.com/red-bull-spiritual-jazz-visual-installation (Accessed: 04/12/18)