Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik was born in 1932 in Seoul, South Korea, and died in 2006 in Miami, Florida. He graduated in 1956 from the University of Tokyo, Japan, and continued his studies from 1956 to 1958 at Munich University, Germany, and Freiburg Conservatory, Germany. 

Nam June Paik brought television into the realm of art for the first time and treated it as a tactile and multisensory medium. Trained as a classical pianist, his early interests in composition and performance combined with his radical aesthetic tendencies brought him into contact with protagonists of the counter–culture and avant–garde movements of the 1960s, including Fluxus. Such engagement profoundly shaped his outlook at a time when electronic images were becoming increasingly present in everyday life. He embraced new technologies as material parts of his repertoire, which later included satellite transmissions, robots, and lasers. In 1974 Paik coined the term “electronic superhighway” to describe the exponential growth of new forms of communication. His installations, performances, and writings contributed to the creation of a media–based culture that expanded the very definition and aesthetic possibilities of making art.

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