Paik, Nam June

Korean-American avant-garde composer and experimenter in the visual arts; b. Seoul, July 20, 1932. Paik studied at the University of Tokyo, then took courses in music theory in Munich and in Freiburg im Breisgau. Turning toward electronics, he conducted experimental work at the Electronic Music Studio in Cologne from 1958 to 1960. He also attended the summer seminars for new music at Darmstadt from 1957 to 1961.

Paik initially attracted attention at his duo recitals with the cellist CHARLOTTE MOORMAN, who performed topless. He acted as a surrogate cello, with his spinal column serving as the fingerboard for Moorman's cello bow, while his bare skin provided an area for intermittent PIZZICATI. Both were associated with the FLUXUS group, a group of N.Y. artists who encouraged audience participation in their works and who tried to introduce humor into serious artwork.

About 1963 Paik began experimenting with videotape as a medium for sounds and images. His initial work in this field was Global Groove, a high-velocity collage of intermingled television bits, which included instantaneous commercials, fragments from news telecasts, and subliminal extracts from regular programs. Paik's list of works includes:

  • Ommaggio a Cage for piano demolition, breakage of raw eggs, spray painting of hands in jet black, etc. (1959)
  • Symphony for 20 Rooms (1961)
  • Variations on a Theme of Saint-Saëns for cello and piano, with the pianist playing The Swan while the cellist dives into an oil drum filled with water (1965)
  • Performable Music, wherein the performer is ordered to make an incision with a razor of no less than ten centimeters on his left forearm (1965)
  • Opera sextronique (1967) and Opera electronique (1968) several video works, including Video Buddha (1974), VIDEA (1980), The More the Better (1988), My Faust/The Stations (1988-91), and Video Opera (1993)

Of uncertain attribution is Symphony No. 3, which Paik delegated to Ken Friedman. Friedman worked on it in Saugus, California, the epicenter of the earthquake of Feb. 9, 1971. The earthquake itself constituted the finale of the piece.