Nam June Paik was born in South Korea on July 20th, 1932 and died in January 29, 2006.He lived and
worked in Japan, Germany and the US. Paik developed a collaborative artistic practice that crossed
borders and disciplines. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video
art. He is credited with an early usage (1974) of the term "electronic superhighway" in application
to telecommunications. Paik graduated with a BA in aesthetics from the University of Tokyo in 1956,
where he wrote a thesis on the composer Arnold Schoenberg. Paik then moved to West Germany to
study music history with composer Thrasybulos Georgiades at Munich University. While studying in
Germany, Paik met the composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage and the conceptual
artists Sharon Grace as well as George Maciunas, Joseph Beuys and Wolf Vostell and was from 1962 on,
a member of Fluxus. He was inspired by other avant-garde artists, musicians, choreographers and
poets, including John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Joseph Beuys. Nam June Paik’s experimental,
innovative, yet playful work has had a profound influence on today’s art and culture. He pioneered the
use of TV and video in art and coined the phrase ‘electronic superhighway’ to predict the future of
communication in the internet age.
One of his important work, the ‘Megatron/Matrix’, holds 215 monitors, resembling a hypnotic, flashing
billboard. This artwork consists of two section. The Megatron, which is the massive grid of monitors
placed side by side in which the smaller screens show clips in an array of disparate real world from
images of the Seoul Olympics to Korean folk rituals to modern dance. The piece symbolizes Paik’s
prophetic awareness of the power of video technology ad how it is realized in the new millennium. As
today, there are myriad streams of arts, imagery and entertainment available to us at all times through
electronic. The artwork has a mesmerising atmosphere to it as the viewer cannot keep up with all the
information in each individual screens as they pass by too quickly- this causes the viewer to spend more
time being fascinated with the screens. This creates an emotion of curiosity in the viewer as they want
to know what is happening in each individual screen and how it relates to the whole idea of the artwork.
The artwork is quite tightly packed with screens and as the screen’s videos pass by quickly, it is not clear
if the original clip was set up or found naturally. The videos fit fully into each individual screen which
adds to the idea of getting too much information at the same time and each screen plays at different
timed intervals. As the artwork is mainly video based, the lighting of the display room would have to be
dark so that the screens can be seen easily but each individual video would have different depth of field
and different lighting settings. Each screen displays its own subject matter and hence its own colours,
which all blend together to create a range of colours on the screen which hooks the viewer because the
passing and flashing of colours intrigues the viewer. The interchanging of colours causes the reader to
be inquisitive about the subject matter of each screen and its relation to the overall project. In regards,
to composition, the screens are neatly placed in rows and columns, so the composition is symmetrical.
The camera angle of each video in a screen is generally neutral which gives the idea that Paik is
displaying the videos as they are without hiding anything.
After the videos would have been taken, Paik would have most likely edited them in photoshop to
increase their colour and composition. After that, he presented the videos on different screens in a grid
manner with the screens fitting perfectly beside each other. Paik’s work has been presented in the Tate
Modern Gallery,Smithsonian American Art Museum and Whitney Museum of American Art.
I chose Paik mainly because of his presentation format and how he shows different subject matter in
one artwork. I am going to use his ideas to present my work in a grid like format with each photographer
worked in Japan, Germany and the US. Paik developed a collaborative artistic practice that crossed
borders and disciplines. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video
art. He is credited with an early usage (1974) of the term "electronic superhighway" in application
to telecommunications. Paik graduated with a BA in aesthetics from the University of Tokyo in 1956,
where he wrote a thesis on the composer Arnold Schoenberg. Paik then moved to West Germany to
study music history with composer Thrasybulos Georgiades at Munich University. While studying in
Germany, Paik met the composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage and the conceptual
artists Sharon Grace as well as George Maciunas, Joseph Beuys and Wolf Vostell and was from 1962 on,
a member of Fluxus. He was inspired by other avant-garde artists, musicians, choreographers and
poets, including John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Joseph Beuys. Nam June Paik’s experimental,
innovative, yet playful work has had a profound influence on today’s art and culture. He pioneered the
use of TV and video in art and coined the phrase ‘electronic superhighway’ to predict the future of
communication in the internet age.
One of his important work, the ‘Megatron/Matrix’, holds 215 monitors, resembling a hypnotic, flashing
billboard. This artwork consists of two section. The Megatron, which is the massive grid of monitors
placed side by side in which the smaller screens show clips in an array of disparate real world from
images of the Seoul Olympics to Korean folk rituals to modern dance. The piece symbolizes Paik’s
prophetic awareness of the power of video technology ad how it is realized in the new millennium. As
today, there are myriad streams of arts, imagery and entertainment available to us at all times through
electronic. The artwork has a mesmerising atmosphere to it as the viewer cannot keep up with all the
information in each individual screens as they pass by too quickly- this causes the viewer to spend more
time being fascinated with the screens. This creates an emotion of curiosity in the viewer as they want
to know what is happening in each individual screen and how it relates to the whole idea of the artwork.
The artwork is quite tightly packed with screens and as the screen’s videos pass by quickly, it is not clear
if the original clip was set up or found naturally. The videos fit fully into each individual screen which
adds to the idea of getting too much information at the same time and each screen plays at different
timed intervals. As the artwork is mainly video based, the lighting of the display room would have to be
dark so that the screens can be seen easily but each individual video would have different depth of field
and different lighting settings. Each screen displays its own subject matter and hence its own colours,
which all blend together to create a range of colours on the screen which hooks the viewer because the
passing and flashing of colours intrigues the viewer. The interchanging of colours causes the reader to
be inquisitive about the subject matter of each screen and its relation to the overall project. In regards,
to composition, the screens are neatly placed in rows and columns, so the composition is symmetrical.
The camera angle of each video in a screen is generally neutral which gives the idea that Paik is
displaying the videos as they are without hiding anything.
After the videos would have been taken, Paik would have most likely edited them in photoshop to
increase their colour and composition. After that, he presented the videos on different screens in a grid
manner with the screens fitting perfectly beside each other. Paik’s work has been presented in the Tate
Modern Gallery,Smithsonian American Art Museum and Whitney Museum of American Art.
I chose Paik mainly because of his presentation format and how he shows different subject matter in
one artwork. I am going to use his ideas to present my work in a grid like format with each photographer
