Initially dubbed "Space Rainbow", the project's title was later
changed to "Olympic Rainbow", and again to "Wrap Around the
World." Whether the reference is to science or mythology, or both,
the work will encompass cultural elements from Greece, Soviet
Union, China, United States, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Germany, Italy,
Austria, Hungary, Ireland, England and Israel. With support from
the Globo Television Network, Brazil will be the only country from
South America to take part in the project. In charge of the
Brazilian end is Hans Donner, an Austrian designer and computer
artist who lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. Invited by Paik
himself, Donner, who works for the Globo Television Network, will
create the opening and the vignettes that will be used as
transitions between the live feeds. The opening, which will make
reference to the ancient Olympic Games through the figure of
Icarus, and the vignettes, which will represent cultural
integration through images of the Earth, will be created by Donner
in New York, since the deadline is too close for the work to be
done in Rio de Janeiro.
Nam June Paik will give emphasis to images from the everyday
life of the Soviet Union and China, symbolizing the approximation
between people from different countries. He will also emphasize
images from Brazil, revealing the coexistence of traditional
cultures (as expressed by the famous Rio de Janeiro Carnival, for
example) and a sophisticated contemporary technoculture. Paik will
incorporate into his audiovisual extravaganza some computer
animations by Donner and also Samba performances specially staged
for the project.
Paik's search for a visual language that suppresses physical
space as a function of real time may be compared to his own
dynamic as a globe traveller. He was born in Seoul, Korea, in
1932. In 1949, he and his family were forced to move to Hong Kong
because of the Korean war. A year later, they moved to Tokyo. In
1956, Paik went to Germany, via Calcutta and Cairo, to study
music. He stayed in Germany until 1963, when he spent a year in
Tokyo. In 1964, he settled in New York. In 1966, he spent part of
the year travelling in Europe with Charlotte Moorman. He still
lives in New York, together with the videoartist Shigeko Kubota,
his wife.
In a letter written in 1959 and addressed to John Cage, Paik had
already expressed his theoretical and artistic interest for
television. In 1963, still in Germany, he bought 13 second-hand
television sets and in March of that year he had his first solo
show (which also was the very first video art exhibition):
"Exposition of Music Ü Electronic Television." Still in 1963, but
now in Japan, he worked with engineer Shuya Abe to create the
first video synthesizer. His ongoing research led to ever more new
discoveries and, in 1965, Paik had his first one-man show in the
United States: "Electronic TV, Color TV Experiments, 3 Robots, 2
Zen Boxes & 1 Zen Can." Expanding these new concepts, in the
next two decades he created videosculptures, videoinstallations,
videoperformances, videotapes and live links via satellite. During
the New Year's Day celebration in January 1, 1984, he aired "Good
Morning Mr. Orwell", a live link between New York and Paris. With
the participation of John Cage, Salvador Dali, Laurie Anderson,
Joseph Beuys and other art superstars, Paik showed that Orwell's
Big Brother hadn't arrived. In 1986 it was "Bye Bye Mr. Kipling",
another live link between Seoul, Tokyo, and New York intended as a
refutation of Kipling's "East is East, and West is West, and never
the twain shall meet." Now it will be "Wrap Around the World",
which will involve the whole planet. In this exclusive interview
by telephone, realized between New York and Rio de Janeiro, Nam
June Paik reveals how to fly around the world in a few minutes
without ever leaving his seat.
Kac - The relationship between art and new technology is as
old as art itself. How do you see this relationship?
Paik - This is, in fact, a very old relationship. The
Egyptian pyramids are the first example of a combination of high
art and high tech, because they used many of the cutting edge
technologies of the time. Their culture was very well developed.
They had chemical industries (which produced colored pigments for
painting), advanced building techniques, sophisticated security
systems (to prevent invasion of the sacred spaces), and efficient
mummification processes for the preservation of the human body,
among other things. Today, new technologies can be used in art in
two basic ways: in the fine arts and in the applied arts. Fine art
is art for art's sake, in which I identify a kind of extension of
conceptual art, according to which the concept is the context and
the context is the concept. The context is the content; the
content is the context. This means that the fine arts have always
been interested in the new horizons of possibilities. When Picasso
created Cubism, he did so because he was tired of Impressionism.
Monet created Impressionism because he was tired of Academicism ÜÜ
artists have always been interested in the new sensibility, in
exploring new possibilities. Since today we have satellites, we
want to use them, discover what we, artists, can do with them. We
want to try something new, in the tradition of Monet and Picasso.
These same instruments (satellites) are used in the applied arts,
which are essential to humankind because they are useful in
everyday life. But there is also the military use of satellites.
We want to use satellites for pacifist purposes, such as the
performance arts, rock'n roll, dance, etc.; and we can make
simultaneous transmissions between Rio de Janeiro, New York,
Seoul, Bonn, Tokyo, Moscow and many other cities. It is clear that
the applied arts are directly related to people's activities, but
the fine arts are more meaningful than the applied arts.
Kac - You have a strong musical background. In 1956 you
studied music at the University of Munich and at the Music
Conservatory of Freiburg, in Germany. In 1958 you worked in
Cologne, in the Rundfunk Electronic Music Studios, where
Stockhausen also worked. In your telecommunication events you
often include performances of rock'n roll or pop music. How do you
relate music and video?
Paik - MTV's videoclips have already shown that there is
great intimacy between sound and image. People are used to these
electronic collages. If you compare them to the underground films
of the '60s, you will find lots of common traits, such as abrupt
cuts and unusual angles, among other characteristics. MTV is not
the only approach to the issue of sound-and-image, but it is an
interesting solution, which has contributed a lot to the
development of a "visual music", and to video art. I believe that
Laurie Anderson's work, for example, is very important, because
she bridges the gap between "low culture" and "high culture". The
standards of "low art" are being raised dramatically. When Elvis
Presley appeared in the '50s, fine artists did not appreciate his
work. But when the Beatles appeared, in the '60s, fine artists
admired and respected them. I see a major change under way. As
opposed to Presley, who was a driver, musicians like David Bowie
or David Byrne are educated, well-informed people, with solid
backgrounds. They admire Marcel Duchamp and other important
artists. A visual artist can talk to them at the same intellectual
level because they were visual artists before turning professional
musicians. But there is no reason for them to create high art,
anyway. There are always artists focused on this kind of work,
like Ray Johnson and the members of Fluxus, among so many others.
Kac - One of the trends of high tech art is the integration
of multiple media. Do you believe that video and holography will
ever cross paths? What is the future of high tech art?
Paik - Holography, which is very different from video, is
the next horizon. I've seen excellent holograms in the Museum of
Holography, and, in fact, new discoveries are made in this field
every day. A single hologram contains a lot of information, which
means that magnetic tape will not be used as storage medium. Most
likely, optical recording systems, such as compact disks, will one
day store holographic images. Artists creating high tech art must
be careful not to fall into the decorative trap. They must prevent
the high tech from overpowering the art. If we can avoid this
danger, then it will be all right.
Kac - Your first large-scale telecommunication art event
was "Good Morning Mr. Orwell." Then came "Bye Bye Mr. Kipling."
Now it is "Wrap Around the World." How does this third piece
complement the others?
Paik - The first work was not about communications between
East and West, it was a link between France and the United States.
The second focused exactly on that; the link was between Korea,
Japan, and the United States. Now I want to create a link that
involves the whole world. This is the main difference. The second
difference is that we are working now more with popular arts than
with high art performances. It is a big risk to create a live
television show in such a large scale with high art only, because
television is an entertainment medium and we have to be careful.
We have to be a little conservative to minimize the risks of a
transmission between several continents. I am not saying that we
are not creating high art, but that we are creating a new high art
with new materials. We are using these new materials to work with
the temporal element of the popular arts, the rhythm, which is so
important in video art. This is my last satellite show, but it is
also the beginning of a larger satellite movement of the future.
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