Electronic Superhighway
Electronic Superhighway. Nam June Paik. 1995 C.E. Mixed-media installation (49-channel closed-circuit video installation, neon, steel, and electronic components).
Electronic Superhighway, Nam June Paik
artist Nam June Paik submitted a report to the Art Program of the Rockefeller Foundation, one of the first organizations to support artists working with new media, including television and video.
media technologies would become increasingly prevalent in American society, and should be used to address pressing social problems, such as racial segregation, the modernization of the economy, and environmental pollution.
Fluxus is an international art movement that emerged in the 1960s. Fluxus artists challenged the authority of museums and “high art” and wanted to bring art to the masses. Influenced by Zen Buddhism, their art often involved the viewer, used everyday objects, and contained an element of chance.
As television continued to evolve from the late 1960s onward, Paik explored ways to disrupt it
In these and other projects, Paik’s goal was to reflect upon how we interact with technology, and to imagine new ways of doing so.
The states are firmly defined, but also linked, by the network of neon lights, which echoes the network of interstate “superhighways” that economically and culturally unified the continental U.S. in the 1950s.
United by electronic communication; has therefore become an icon of America in the information age.
this particular work also can be read as posing some difficult questions about how that technology is impacting culture.
visual tension between the static brightness of the neons and the dynamic brightness of the screens points to a similar tension between national and local frames of reference.
Electronic Superhighway, Nam June Paik
artist Nam June Paik submitted a report to the Art Program of the Rockefeller Foundation, one of the first organizations to support artists working with new media, including television and video.
media technologies would become increasingly prevalent in American society, and should be used to address pressing social problems, such as racial segregation, the modernization of the economy, and environmental pollution.
Fluxus is an international art movement that emerged in the 1960s. Fluxus artists challenged the authority of museums and “high art” and wanted to bring art to the masses. Influenced by Zen Buddhism, their art often involved the viewer, used everyday objects, and contained an element of chance.
As television continued to evolve from the late 1960s onward, Paik explored ways to disrupt it
In these and other projects, Paik’s goal was to reflect upon how we interact with technology, and to imagine new ways of doing so.
The states are firmly defined, but also linked, by the network of neon lights, which echoes the network of interstate “superhighways” that economically and culturally unified the continental U.S. in the 1950s.
United by electronic communication; has therefore become an icon of America in the information age.
this particular work also can be read as posing some difficult questions about how that technology is impacting culture.
visual tension between the static brightness of the neons and the dynamic brightness of the screens points to a similar tension between national and local frames of reference.