Main content
Modernisms 1900-1980
Course: Modernisms 1900-1980 > Unit 12
Lesson 1: Conceptual art- Conceptual Art: An Introduction
- Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs
- Martha Rosler, The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems
- The Case for Yoko Ono
- Vito Acconci, Following Piece
- John Baldessari, I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art
- John Baldessari, I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art
- Hans Haacke: "A Breed Apart" in South Africa
- Hans Haacke, Seurat's 'Les Poseuses' (small version)
- Nam June Paik, Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii
- Preserving Nam June Paik's Electronic Superhighway
- Jannis Kounellis, "Da inventare sul posto (To invent on the spot)"
- Juan Downey: Plato Now
- Cildo Meireles
- Eleanor Antin, Carving: A Traditional Sculpture
- Nauman, The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths
- Mónica Mayer, The Clothesline
- Mary Kelly, Post-Partum Document
- Yayoi Kusama
- How to paint like Yayoi Kusama
- Yayoi Kusama, Narcissus Garden
- Yayoi Kusama, Pumpkin
© 2023 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
Preserving Nam June Paik's Electronic Superhighway
Nam June Paik's massive TV and neon artwork displays a grid of American states. Each TV plays unique content related to its state. The artwork, originally using LaserDiscs and DVDs, now uses digital files. The piece reflects the information overload and the role of media in our lives. Conservation efforts keep the artwork alive, even as technology evolves.
Want to join the conversation?
- how long did it take you to build that(3 votes)
- Concept is usually what takes the most time, followed by gathering materials, assembling, rearranging, testing, then disassembling and transport to the place where it is to be displayed, and reassembling, testing and putting it on display there. It's no quick and easy fix, that's for sure.(1 vote)
- At, Dan mentions the smaller screens die put first. Why is that? 2:18(1 vote)
- CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) Monitor
The CRT computer monitor makes use of an electron gun within a vacuum tube to force electrons to a fluorescent screen. CRT models are older computer monitor models; they are often heavy, bulky and fragile units.
The rating of CRT monitors often falls around 25,000-30,000 hours of usage. This rating is equivalent to 8-10 years’ lifespan if you use the monitor 8 hours a day.(4 votes)
- “And yet, somehow, the overarching identity of the artwork survives across the variations that occur every time you install it or update some technological element.”
So for Dan the Ship of Theseus remains the same ship.(2 votes)- The "spirit" of the ship of Thesus remains the same, but the ship itself (in this case, the Electronic Superhighway) changes every time.(1 vote)
Video transcript
(pleasant music) - [Steven] I'm with Dan Finn, conservator for time-based media at the
Smithsonian American Art Museum, standing across from
this enormous collection of televisions and neon by
the artist Nam June Paik. So what we're seeing is this
grid of American states, but they're framing all of these monitors, all of these television sets. And those televisions sets are all on, and they're all playing different things. For me, it's almost
impossible to focus anywhere. - [Dan] What you see is the
sense of information overload, and the importance of
technology and media to life in this country and life around the world, and the sense of connectedness overarching the geography
of where we live. All of the content has
to do with the state in which the monitors are present. It's mostly what the artist
associated with the state. So some of them are artists
that he worked with, hail from a certain state,
but then some of them are more associative,
like potatoes in Idaho. - [Steven] When I think of conservation, I tend to think of very old objects. If the object is treated reasonably well, it can survive for centuries,
maybe even for millennia. But here we have an object that
was made during my lifetime, and it wouldn't have existed
without your intervention and the intervention
of other conservators. - [Dan] There are information carriers which have the content that's
playing on the monitors. They originally were shown
on LaserDisc, then DVD and currently digital files
on solid state players. And then, a lot of cabling
that's transmitting that, and then we have the layer of display, which are these cathode ray tube monitors, the traditional old-style of monitor that started becoming obsolete
in the end of the '90s, and then the neon lights
which are all custom-built and susceptible to cracking. - [Steven] You really ave to think about the artist's intention and how to maintain this object. The artist is fascinating
because, earlier than anybody else I can think of, he was
placing television sets within works of art as
objects unto themselves, more like sculpture. - [Dan] One thing that
conservators of time-based media are always juggling is to what extent is this object purely a functional piece. Like you say, is it just intended as a display of some information? Or does it have sculptural value? And he certainly imbues his monitors with sculptural value
in many of his works. So, in that case, we've already begun to replace some of the
screens with LCD screens, but we did it in a way to
maintain the original chassis. You'll see that in all
of the smaller monitors, which are all LCDs, and that's because those
small five inch screens are the first to die. So, the balancing act is then,
yes, it's a new LCD screen, it's a new display
technology, but it's housed in the original chassis
to try and maintain, to the extent possible,
the sculptural effect. - [Steven] It's almost a
philosophical question. What are we preserving? Are we preserving the original objects? And, in this case, no. But you are trying to
preserve the semblance of the original expression of the work. - [Dan] One of the things that we have to be very conscientious of is the conceptual nature
of these artworks. And this is one way in which
time-based media conservation and, more broadly,
contemporary art conservation tends to differentiate itself
from traditional conservation of objects like sculptures
or oil paintings. You can't have two Mona Lisas. The one that Leonardo da Vinci
painted is the Mona Lisa. The rest are copies. Those have value, but not the same value as that original object
which then gets conserved. In time-based media, you have DVDs, VHSs, digital files, photographs, films. All of these things are produced in ways that inherently produce lots of copies. He would be amenable, in many
cases, to updating technology. So he had pieces he even updated from CRTs to having an iteration with LCD screens. - [Steven] This is really
a relief for me to hear because, if one were to be really strict, I had this image of the
screens going black one by one until there was only
a single monitor left, and then that eventually dying, and the object becoming
in a sense dormant. - [Dan] There is a way about thinking of time-based media art in
that the artwork doesn't exist unless it's being shown,
unless it's being performed. One can easily see how Nam June Paik intentionally intended
that sort of evolution. A practitioner in that Fluxus Movement, he was very interested in performance. He could very easily think of this piece as a performance piece,
and all of the monitors and video content are players, and they interact very differently. It looks a little bit different
every time you come to it. And there's some
difference on the monitors, there's some difference in brightness, and there's some difference
in how they are reproducing the color on that day or in that hour. These things warm up during the
day, and then get turned off and have to warm up again the next day. And so, some of the performers can change. Some of the instrumentation might change, just as it would in a performance. And yet, somehow, the overarching
identity of the artwork survives across the variations that occur every time you install it or update some technological element. - [Steven] So, in some sense,
the object is a living thing. - [Dan] And I believe that's
the case for all works of art, except that with newer
media their lifespans are so much shorter that it's something that we have to deal with in
one lifetime, multiple times. Whereas, with an oil painting,
a conservator's treatment maybe is good for one
career's worth of time, and then the next conservator may or may not have to deal with it again. So the cycles of intervention
become much more frequent, and what does that mean about
how these artworks live? And I think that one of
the things that that means is that conservators, curators,
museums are starting to deal with the fact that they
are not only collectors but producers of the artworks
that they collect, in a sense, that they become in
charge of that evolution. (pleasant music)