Can art and technology unite the world? This was a question that Korean artist Nam June
Paik spent much of his career exploring. Paik had a uniquely global view of the world
for his time. Born in South Korea in 1932, he went on to live and work in Japan, Germany
and the United States. Travel at the time was difficult and rare,
but Paik saw tech as a way to open up the world and share art beyond borders and cultural
differences.
Here are five times Nam June Paik predicted the future.
One: The internet
In 1974, Paik proposed building a network of “electronic super highways”, using
satellites, cables and fibre optics to connect faraway cities.
We could hold ‘conferences between people in different locations via colour video…
It will become our springboard for new and surprising human endeavours.’
While others before him had suggested a digital network, Paik was the first to predict an
Internet that would be used for communication.
Two: Video as art
For his first art exhibition in 1963, Paik showcased a dozen manipulated TV sets. It
was the start of his fascination with electronics. Paik started to play with the latest gadgets
and was one of the first artists to use TV and video.
He built TV-robots, TV-walls, made his own synthesiser and broadcasted live events. His
- Good evening, Tamara - Hello, everybody. This is my friend, Mischa
His ground-breaking work showed the possibilities of videos in art and paved the way for future artists.
Three: Climate crisis
In 1980, Paik wrote an essay called ‘How to Make Oil Obsolete’. He wrote that ‘someday
brain-power must prevail over oil-power… which would indicate ecological well-being.’
For Paik, technology and nature were connected and needed to exist in harmony.
Illustrating this idea, Paik created TV Garden, where he placed TV sets among tropical plants.
‘Many people had thought that television is against ecology… But in this case, television
is part of ecology.’
Four: Global media
In 1973, Paik predicted global satellite TV. In his video broadcast artwork 'Global Groove',
he announced: ‘This is a glimpse of a video landscape of tomorrow, when you will be able to switch to any
TV station on the earth.’ This was an ambitious goal, but Paik hoped
that mass media could help unite the globe.
15 years later, his final video broadcast
'Wrap Around the World' was aired to 50 million viewers in 10 countries, from the United States
to Japan.
Five: Smartphones
In 1974, Paik wrote that one day there would be a ‘mixed media telephone system for one-thousand-and-one
new applications’, on which you can make video calls, watch TV, go shopping and even
get a health check. Paik believed that tech would give us all
the chance to make and share art. ‘The invention of the camera changed the scene
and made everybody into an active visual artist’, he wrote, predicting the future of camcorders,
live-streaming and social media.