Tuesday, November 24, 2009

THE FIRST WILLING DRIVER

NAM JUNE PAIK got his hands on the Portapak the same year of it's initial distribution. Paik was heavy into the musical compositions of John Cage, this resulted in a direct inspiration of his initial debut as a video artist which did not include the use of the Portipak, rather he adapted scattered televisions to respond magnetically,Exposition of Music-Electronic television. Another note worthy piece of video art pre-video would be Paik's Cello, 1964. Here we see the influence of classical composition aligning itself in modern oblivion.














Exposition of Music-Electronic television, Paik 1964















Cello, Paik 1964

3 comments:

  1. Gosh, I was there in the early 60s to see Paik, Charlotte Moorman, Yoko Ono, David Tudor, and my favorite Morton Feldman (among others). Saw Stockhausen too, smoking a pipe at the Cafe Metro.

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  2. Cafe Metro, near St. Mark's Church on 2nd Avenue, was a popular reading place for Fluxus and other NY poets.

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  3. Great vid of the beautiful Charlotte Moorman talking about Paik and the Fluxus scene:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiEJdOlgcDE

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