<다다익선〉의 오래된 미래: 쓸모없는 뉴미디어의 '시차적 당대성' [Ancient Futures of <The More, the Better>: Obsolete New Media’s ‘Parallax Contemporaneity’] (original) (raw)

2019, 현대미술사연구 Journal of History of Modern Art

What should we do about defunct or ‘aging new media’ artworks by a now deceased artist when there is no specific manual or artist’s statement to consult? Taking Nam June Paik’s dysfunctional multi-media artwork <The More, the Better>(1988) as an ‘exemplary symptom,’ this paper seeks to offer an answer. Focusing on the relationship between ‘Time’, ‘Nature’ and ‘Technology’ in Paik’s oeuvre in terms of ‘entropy,’ we will see how they serve to illuminate contemporary discussions of preservation and conservation of so-called ‘time-based media’ as ‘performance.’ To that end, we will critically engage with the humanist take on Paik’s artworks as well as confusion about seemingly interchangeable concepts such as ‘entropy,’ ‘indeterminacy,’ and ‘chance.’ By re-reading Paik’s crucial statements, writings, artworks including performances such as “Norbert Wiener and Marshall McLuhan,” , and his 1997 performance in a wheelchair at the Walker Art Center, we will see how <The More, the Better> as an ‘obsolete new media’ showcases what I call ‘parallax contemporaneity.’ In so doing, we will provide a necessary, if not exhaustive corrective to the extant scholarship on Nam June Paik’s art, and by extension, suggestive stimulants to contemporary reflections on new media, post-medium/media, and media archeology.