Since the Renaissance period, the western artists have been greatly interested in scientific technologies and have performed a variety of research on them. The technologies borrowed by the most innovative and challenging art trend in the late twentiet...
Since the Renaissance period, the western artists have been greatly interested in scientific technologies and have performed a variety of research on them. The technologies borrowed by the most innovative and challenging art trend in the late twentieth century expanded the areas of art and they are involved in video art including video sculpture and installation, laser art, and computer art. In particular, the video art in the 1960s was established as a representative of contemporary art, leading the development of a new media art.
For about 40 years, video appeared and recognized as a new media that replaced the canvass used by artists. Video is a media that has a potential of further artistic development, and Paik Nam-june is an artist who has experimented various possibilities of video. Video art has expanded its artistic sphere along with the development of technologies, not existing in the state of simple ideology. It is an open art that signifies the birth of new aesthetics. Therefore, the video art should not be identified with a stereotyped idea. The understanding of video art needs a completely new sense about art. It asks a fundamental question: " What is art? "
Mr. Paik's works of art are represented in various types: object, video sculpture, video installation, video tapes and video performances. The images in his works negate the existing ideological and logical concept of time, and regards time free. His serial works distinctly represent peculiarity of time that can be presented by only the video.
Video art has an ontological basis as an artistic work when the artist leads the audience to join his installation work and the audience continuously create a new condition of the artistic work. This is an extreme transformation of the fixed and established phase of artistic work. Video art transforms time using instantaneousness, simultaneity, and possibility of transformation, and deals with space in the experimental dimension. Theses days, aesthetic experiences and sensory areas have been expanded, followed by the innovation of the quality of artistic creation, and the development of advanced materials. In this trend, Mr. Paik attempted to prevent the isolation of artistic objects and induced the audience to participate the artistic creation. It can be said that he found out the true aspect of art in that he pursued for union of art and life.