Internet Art: Artist Research

          After reading the Introduction of "Internet Art" and having the lecture in class, I first wanted to research Nam June Paik. We learned about him last semester in ART211, so I already have a general idea of what he does as an artist. He is known everywhere as the "father of video art", and his experiments in art fit one of the themes I picked up from "Internet Art". Artists are encouraged to break trends, try new things, make people stop and think "wow, I've never seen that before". That is exactly what Nam June Paik did.                                                                                                                          

          In the mid-late 1900s, televisions were first coming out as a brand new invention that was considered a priviledge. They served the purpose of a broadcast station distributing information and entertainment to the general public. Nam June Paik transformed the TV from a simple machine into works of art. He dove into unexplored territory, which was using an electronic box as a canvas for his artistic expression. The two photos above show Paik's "Magnet TV" and "Electronic Superhighway". In the first piece, Paik made the statement that people have the ability to control television. Using a magnet, the artist is able to manipulate the image on the screen and create their own visual. In the second one, Paik sends the message that the television is taking over our country and becoming as prominent as highways in our society. People will soon use TVs just as much as they use transportation, and he actually used physical televisions to represent this idea. 

          In the documentary "Play It Again, Nam", Fargier describes Paik's artistic backgrounds in electroacoustic music and how he incorporated that into his art. Paik is an incredibly talented artist who combines different forms of art to create masterpieces. He was also the first to utilize the television in an artistic way, and that is what makes him the father of video art. 

        http://www.paikstudios.com

          The next artist I researched was Yoko Ono. She is an incredible artist who has often been inspired by the Dada movement. Her most famous piece is the performance art called "Cut Piece. She performed this piece in Japan, in Paris, and in London, getting different results from the different cultures of people. The purpose of this piece is to experiment with the trust of people; will someone aggressively cut off all her clothe instantly or will they be respectful and try to keep her covered? 

          Similarly to Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono stretched the boundaries of art and its relationship to the artist. While Paik experimented this using televisions as a medium to communicate with the audience, Yoko Ono used a more raw, personal medium: her body. She isn't just painting a picture or doing another conventional type of art, she is showing that anything can be art. Like Marcel Duchamp used a urinal as a piece of art and raised controversy over whether that was even art, Yoko Ono is using her body as art and showing that anything can be artistic depending on interpretation. I think that is what "Internet Art" is talking about so far. Artists are meant to go above and beyond what society is used to; the break comfort zones and experiment to get new ideas into the minds of the public. Yoko Ono and Nam June Paik both did this in different ways, but they will always be remembered for the risks they took for their art.