Nam June Paik (American, born Korea. 1932–2006) and Otto Piene (German, born 1928)

Looking at Music
, August 18–December 21, 2008

Curator, Barbara London: This television with just a few scan lines illuminated is an untitled sculpture by video pioneer Nam June Paik. The television set exhibits a single unchanging image, like a musical composition consisting of a single note. It is reminiscent of Paik’s early performances, in which a single stroke of a piano key followed a long preparatory phase. In fact, Nam June Paik had trained as a classical pianist earlier in his life and that musical background influenced his thinking throughout his career. In his 1980 Video Viewpoints lecture at MoMA, he discussed the similarities in the evolution of electronic music and video, recognizing the sizable contribution of composer and electronic music pioneer, John Cage, in reshaping the medium.

Artist, Nam June Paik: There is time-based and random access information. There is only one reason why videotape is so boring and only one reason why television is so bad, and that’s because it’s time-based information. The first electronic art was electronic music, which was also strictly time-based art until 1958 when John Cage went to the Cologne electronic music concert and said after the concert, ‘Oh it is as dead as a door nail.’ So this is like today’s videotapes. Everything is fixed and you repeat and repeat. He said he would make electronic music, which is live. He said that he wanted to make electronic music, which that is playable either in three seconds or thirty hours. There is not a definite retrieval time. I think it’s really great genius.