Weekly assignment 5: TV Buddha by Nam June Paik

About Nam June Paik:

Nam June Paik was a Korean American artist born in 1932 and died in 2006. He was influenced by the Fluxus movement, whose main aim was to make art available to the masses by involving them and relying on their translation in the outcome of their art pieces.

Nam June Paik and his Buddha TV, 1974, at Projects: Nam June Paik (August 29-October 10, 1977), Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1977, photo: Eric Kroll

TV Buddha

In this work, the Buddha is a symbol of meditation and enlightenment, while its placement opposite the TV and camera symbolizes modern technology. Paik, a lifelong Buddhist, uses this work to question the role of the self in an era that intersects spirituality and technology. Each piece in the series consists of a Buddha sitting opposite the camera and TV. Through the projection of a camera, the Buddha stares at his image on a television screen, raising questions of self and humanity in a constant eye-to-eye competition. 

The things I see from this work are our digital existence. This art piece was created back to the time when television just came out. The way I examine this project the perspective people see technology through is different from the previous. We are all quite familiar with the display, camera, and digital technology while the people back in the last century are the first generation who embraced digital technology. It is reasonable to see they had the consideration and thinking on surveillance and humanity in digital form. But what about us? We are too numb to keep ourselves aware that we are under surveillance of thousands of cameras and algorithms. When we look at the self in camera, the experience is just like looking at a mirror. People enjoy technologies without noticing them and also without noticing that the mirror self is a digital version or existence of self.

The project was assigned new values and opinions as to the change of time and technologies. Right now, as Metaverse is invading our generation, we start to think about the question that Nam June Paik raised for people in the 1970s again.