Artist Research 9

Electronic Superhighway by Nam June Paik
    Nam June Paik (July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a Korean-born American artist. He worked with 
a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist. Paik is credited with an early usage (1974) 
of the term "super highway" in application to telecommunications. Nam June Paik then began participating 
in the Neo-Dada art movement, known as Fluxus, which was inspired by the composer John Cage and his 
use of everyday sounds and noises in his music. He made his big debut at an exhibition known as Exposition 
of Music-Electronic Television, in which he scattered televisions everywhere and used magnets to alter or 
distort their images.
    To design this monumental map of the United States, the artist Nam June Paik arranged 336 televisions on 
a scaffold and overlaid it with almost 600 feet of neon. Fifty DVD players send multimedia simultaneously 
to screens populating each state. Walking along the entire length of this installation suggests the enormous scale of the nation that confronted the young Korean artist when he arrived. Neon outlines the monitors, 
recalling the multicolored maps and glowing enticements of motels and restaurants that beckoned 
Americans to the open road. The different colors remind us that individual states still have distinct 
identities and cultures, even in today's information age.