Video artist Nam June Paik died yesterday. Paik pioneered video art and was one of the first to combine video with sculpture.
I remember him back in the early 70s, on a PBS show about video art. He, Ed Emshwiller, and William Wegman were the most interesting artists there. Paik is credited with coining the phrase “Electronic Super Highway” and “The Future is Now.”
Bummer. I first heard about him when he had an exhibit at the guggenheim (nyc) maybe 7-8 years back. I still have his poster hanging in my bedroom back home.
I went to the Art Institute in Chicago to see his exhibit when I was in 5th grade. I only actually remember the Video Bra (for various reasons) and the television that created shapes in reaction to your voice. Years later, when I studied electronics, I realized that this later gimmick was just a primitive oscilloscope turning a waveform into a lissajous curve by running another waveform on the perpendicular axis. But at the time it seemed pretty nifty.