Nam June Paik (1932-2006)- e resources

What is Installation Art?
My interpretation of installation art as a whole is art which is site specific, which is designed to provoke an expression or interpretation specific to it's place or sorroundings. Often involving a variety of senses i.e. site, vision, touch.

Nam June Paik is considered to be one of the first video artists. He is a qualified composer and studied history of music. Leading him to the exploration and experimentation of tv, musical compositions and avant-garde art as a combination.
Some of his most famous pieces of work, 'TV Buddah', 'TV Plant' and 'TV Cello' involve science and technology with natural beauty, whether it be nature its self, music or spirituality. Personifying the nature of the human form through different types of media/instalments and sculptures.
"he insisted that the video camera was not so much a technological device as a brush for creating images, which could freely be used by anyone in any country. He believed that when technology could be used like an artist's brush, this would humanize technology so it could be applied for the true benefit of mankind. "

Lee Yongwoo,
	Technotogy as Art: The Legacy of Video Artist Paik Nam June
SOURCE:	Koreana 20 no2 36-9 Summ 2006
COPYRIGHT:	(C) Korea Foundation. Web address: http://www.kofo.or.kr/kdata.htm.

Video Fish (1975). Three channel video installation with aquariums, water, live fish, and variable number of monitors.

Paik humanises technology my removing the interior of the tv and replacing it with something else. He provokes his audience by allowing them to question technology and it's possibilities and limitations. With a world around us becoming increasing dependant on the use of technology in all aspects of everyday life, he endeavours to dig deeper into the mind and sole of technology. By extracting ones original connatation of a tv or a fish tank and replacing it with something else, Paik has given the piece of technology a new form. One that is open to interpretation, therefore being installation art.

Nam June Piak also plays with the notion of time passing and repetition, often giving something a different meaning or perception after some time has passed. The monotony of watching fish is like that of watching the TV or playing a repetitive computer game. The idea of placing a fish tank with live fish in front of video screens of fish swimming, planes flying and other moving images creates a literal crossing of mediums, giving the live fish a tv like feel and the tv's themselves a  three dimensional sculpture form. 

           NAM JUNE PAIK, TV Fish (detail), 1975–88, three-channel video, 24 monitors and aquariums, live fish, 1158 × 147 × 99 cm. Courtesy Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin.

This iconic piece























http://www.paikstudios.com/gallery/18.html





References:

AUTHOR:	Carla Hanzal
TITLE:	Traversing the Worlds of NAM JUNE PAIK
SOURCE:	Sculpture (Washington, D.C.) 20 no5 18-23 Je 2001

• Source Citation

Dillon, Brian. "Outside the box: turning television sets into art is a compelling conceit, says Brian Dillon." New Statesman[1996] 10 Jan. 2011: 53. Gale Power Search. Web. 6 Feb. 2012.

Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA247975819&v=2.1&u=stock&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

Gale Document Number: GALE|A247975819