Becoming Robot

The Asia Society and Museum had an exhibition on Nam June Paik who is, more or less, the founder of video art. Along with video art, Paik is also often associated with the Neo-Dada and Pop Art movements. He spent most of his career attempting to humanize technology through his art. Though he worked with a variety of media, he typically used television screens for his art. Although, one of his more famous works of art include the robot K-456. One of the features of the robot that many found interesting was that Paik was androgynous with breasts and a penis. Paik attempted to showcase the robot during the 1970s in the Upper East Side. During the demonstration, the robot was run over by a car as it was walking in the street. Paik is also known for his collaboration with musicians such as Yoko Ono but he namely remembered for his collaboration with Charlotte Moorman. Moorman was a cellist with whom Paik attempted to mix video, music, performance and art. It was during this collaboration that Moorman performed what she is most famous for. She performed Paik's Opera Sextronique in which she would do various cello performances in various forms of nudity. Paik and Moorman were attempting to remove the stigma from nudity, and in many respects attempting to lower the sexualization of nudity, especially in music. Moorman was attempting halfway through the performance by three police officers for "indecent exposure" and the performance as a whole is why she is primarily known as the "topless cellist". Paik is also known for making many robots out of television screens which goes back to sentiment of wishing to humanize technology. One of his other main goals was to show how effective the screen could be use as a canvas. Paik even believed that the screen was the most superior canvas of them all. This was best exemplified by Paik's piece "Good Morning, Mr. Orwell". The piece was unveiled on New Year's Day on 1984. It was essentially a response to George Orwell's dystopian vision in 1984 especially in regards to technology. The piece used a lot of digital imagery and music to convey a sort of psychedelic image which appeared in a lot of Paik's work with screens. Paik's work really shows how interwoven technology and culture are. Artistic innovations often times accompany technological and scientific advancements. The work really cements the point that technology and science, and art are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary and can even be quite dependent on each other.