Nam June Paik Video Innovations :: Essays Papers

Nam June Paik Video Innovations Nam June Paik was born in capital of South Korea, Korea on July 20, 1932. He was the fifth and youngest child of a textile merchant. In 1947, at the age of 14, he canvass piano and composition with 2 of Koreas first composers. The family moved to Tokyo, Japan in 1950 to avoid the havoc of the Korean War. Paik studied music, history, art history, and philosophy at the University of Tokyo from 1953 to 1956. He did his graduate talk on Schoenberg. In 1956, he moved to Germany to pursue his interest in avant-garde music. He studied music history under Thrasybulos Georgiades at the University of Munich and composition under Wolfgang Fortner at the Hochschule fr Musik. He also attended classes under Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luigi Nono, David Tudor, and John Cage. Paik lived in Cologne for the next v years and then returned to Japan for a short time to admit experiments with electromagnets and color TV sets. In 1964, Paik moved to New Yo rk and still resides in that respect today.While he lived in Korea, Paik had become familiar with the work of Schoenberg. Paik was raise in Schoenberg above all others because of his radical compositions. They reflected the social atmosphere of Seoul at the time. In 1947, Paik had only one slice of Schoenbergs work. It took Paik devil years to convince a record shop owner to allow him listen to what was probably the only Schoenberg record in Korea. Paik had only two compositions by which to judge his guru. Then one day in Japan, in 1951, Paik heard a third piece on NHK Radio. Another of Paiks great influences was John Cage, whom he met in Germany. Meeting Cage, a pupil of Schoenberg, was a turning point in Paiks life. Paiks piece Zen for Film was definitely influenced by Cages 4 33, the silent piece. Cage was devoted to sounds, but Paik was devoted to objects, and Cages influence is evident in all of Paiks work.Joseph Beuys, like Cage, played an important role in influencing the direction of Paiks video work. Paiks portraits of Beuys constitute a significant body of work.