Furtherfield Archive. Nam June Paik – Video Philosopher.
Interviewed by By Lynn Hershman Leeson.
Lynn Hershman Leeson is a renowned and accomplished artist and filmmaker in her
own right. Over the last three decades she has pioneered uses of new
technologies in critical investigations of issues, recognised as key to the
workings of our society today. She tackles the big questions surrounding:
identity in a time of consumerism; privacy in a era of surveillance; the
interfacing of humans and machines; the relationship between real and virtual
worlds; and growing parts of the human body from DNA samples. Last year Modern
Art Oxford hosted a major solo exhibition of her work Origins of a Species,
Part 2 and she has work in The Electronic Superhighway, at Whitechapel Gallery,
in London at the moment. Her work has had a strong influence on many
contemporary artists working with technology. Recently, ZKM in cooperation with
the Deichtorhallen Hamburg / Sammlung Falckenberg exhibited the first
comprehensive retrospective of Leeson’s oeuvre, and also the most recent
productions of her work. In May this year a book of the same name Civic Radar,
will be published, featuring a comprehensive monograph of this Feminist pioneer
in the fields of film and performance art, edited by Peter Weibel.
Nam June Paik was born in 1932 Seoul, Korea and died 2006. Many in the artworld
regard him as a visionary artist, thinker, and innovator. Considered the
“father of video art,” his groundbreaking use of video technology blurred past
distinctions between science, fine art, and popular culture to create a new
visual language. Paik’s interest in exploring the human condition through the
lens of technology and science has created a far-reaching legacy that may be
seen in broad recognition of new media art and the growing numbers of
subsequent generations of artists who now use various forms of technology in
their work.
Through his progressive ideas and artworks Paik dared to imagine a future where
the technological and playful innovations that we now take for granted might
exist. This interview with Hershman Leeson is timely, documenting the meeting
of two imaginative beings who have changed the history of work at the
intersection of art and technology. The issues they discuss are as important
now as they were then.
Nam June Paik, “Merce/Digital,” 1988 single-channel video sculpture with
vintage television cabinets and fifteen monitors; color, silent, collection of
Roselyne Chroman Swig, Copyright Nam June Paik Estate. (Image courtesy Nam June
Paik Estate)
https://www.furtherfield.org/nam-june-paik-video-philosopher/
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