(signal beeps) (classical violin playing) (violin music distorting) - [Narrator] Although I'm an artist, I'm not really concerned about so said art world.
(classic violin playing) I'm concerned to whole world.
(zapping) (banging) (quick ascending note) (crashing) - Hello.
Today, I thought we could talk about someone who's widely regarded as the father of video art.
- Nam June Paik, avant garde musician, self-taught engineer.
- The Nostradamus of the digital age.
- He envisioned the internet.
- He could see where all of this was going.
(fire hisses) (quick ascending note) - This is a glimpse of a video landscape of tomorrow.
- The future that he was predicting was that every artist would be his own channel.
- Look where we are now with selfies.
(scraping noise) (classical violin music) - Like a superhighway, it is called, internet.
- The information superhighway.
- He had a different sense of purpose, different idea of what an artist's job might be.
(static hissing) (somber piano music) - [Narrator] History will repeat itself if we don't plan the future carefully.
- Television was the advanced technology in having influence on other people.
- We've had enough of that in the United States.
- [Narrator] I wanted to carve out a different path.
(base note dropping) - But he was too early.
- Looking in the rear view mirror, as usual.
- Being an artist in a medium that has no market is enough of an existential threat.
I mean, I don't know how he lived.
- He was afraid of having to return to Korea.
(dramatic piano note) - [Narrator] I'm fighting a war of persistence.
(shaker music) - Nam June was non-stop.
- What he was always interested is to bring cultures together.
- Shall we toast to the new year?
- We know the world through the colonial guise.
How would it be if we were capable of actually seeing the world from another point of view?
- Nam June was always transcending our vision of reality.
Opening up unbelievable possibilities.
(sharp whistling) (contemplative music) (distorted noise fading out)
