nam june paik
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| Global Groove | Moon is the Oldest TV (1965/1992)
11 screen video installation, B&W, silent, 10 min
Magnetically manipulated video images evoke the lunar cycle.
Nam June Paik added a magnet to the cathode tube of 11 television monitors, modifying the signal to produce an image on each screen representing the phases of the lunar cycle. Paik strips television of its broadcast images and sounds, replacing them with zen-like stillness and silence.
Throughout the ages, gazing at the moon has been associated with creativity and inspiration, while in contrast, watching television is often described as deadening to the spirit. By referencing these two gazes simultaneously, Paik creates a contemplative work with an ironic edge.
Global Groove (1973)
Videotape, colour, sound, 28:30 min
This kaleidoscopic TV 'jam' predicted the saturated media landscape of the future.
A high-speed concoction of performance, pop music and electronically manipulated imagery, Global Groove demonstrates Nam June Paik's pioneering practice of using the technology and medium of television as art, and as metaphors of a world based in such technology.
The title of the work refers to media theorist Marshall McLuhan, and the possibility of a 'global village' spawned through television. Paik's radical call for the free exchange of information and the democratisation of media remains powerful to this day.
 
 
 
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