Nam June Paik 9/9

Nam June Paik was part of the neo-dada movement also known as fluxus (artists preferred to work with whatever materials were at hand, and either created their own work or collaborated in the creation process with their colleagues). He is considered to be the first video artist.

Video Tape Study No.3, Nam June Paik; Jud Yalkut 1967-69

In 1965 Paik met another working video artist Jud Yalkut and together they began to collaborate in the electronic manipulation of appropriated imagery and sound. The jump cutting of popular news imagery mixed with slowed, reversed, and repeated actions essentially denies the symbolic nature of the classic imagery. The deconstruction and abstraction of the pre-taped press conference by President Lyndon Johnson and the NYC mayor John Linsay makes a mockery of the authority that they stand for. The work that Paik and Yalkut did inspired an increase in use of "sampling" imagery and audio sources, and influenced artists at the time like Dara Birnbaum, and Marcel Odenbach as well as more contemporary artists such as Candice Breitz.

One of the publishing goals of the project was "the transmutation of popular cliche images familiar to any contemporary consciousness, reiterated and metamorphosed beyond their popular meanings into abstraction"

Paik is probably most widely know for his elaborate sculptures using televisions and radios. And for his use of sound. As a trained classical pianist and music theorist Paik used experimental sound juxtaposed with performance and video.

TV Cello, 1964

Some of his work, reminds myself of my own concepts piece completed last fall.Without even knowing it my work was very much if not completely influenced by all the work that Paik had doen previous to me.