Remembering Nam June Paik (July 20, 1932-January 29, 2006)

One of the highlights of a daily walk from the DeKalb Avenue station at Flatbush Avenue Extension and Willoughby Street up to Court Street is the lobby of a Metrotech Building that features the late video artist Nam June Paik's videowall.

Paik (July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a Korean American artist who worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist. He is credited with an early usage (1974) of the term "electronic super highway" in application to telecommunications. He was an early member of the Fluxus art movement and among many other works, projects and experiments was known for his collaboration with cellist Charlotte Moorman, known for topless performances, and Paik's construciotn of a TV monitor bra for the avant garde artist.

Quotes from Mr. Paik:

• "Our life is half natural and half technological. Half-and-half is good. You cannot deny that high-tech is progress. We need it for jobs. Yet if you make only high-tech, you make war. So we must have a strong human element to keep modesty and natural life."
• "Skin has become inadequate in interfacing with reality. Technology has become the body's new membrane of existence."
• "The future is now."
• "The only way to win a race is to run alone."
• "There is no rewind button for life."
• "When too perfect, lieber Gott böse. [G-d is evil] "

Mr. Paik's studio here