This is the story of my search for the names and images of a series of artworks made by Nam June Paik.
It began in Vermont 2012 at Twin Farms Resort. In their game room was an intriguing piece of art on display. It was sculpture made from old televisions in a multi-media extravaganza that would make me believe that I could make art.
Created in 1996 it has eyes and a mouth composed of video clips playing on a loop. It is made from old televisions and cathode ray tubes and oscilloscopes and other old electronics and other antiques. Instantly I could sense his attitude of play. It was a whimsical piece but yet it had the feeling of an African mask. (African masks were used to connect a community to the spirit world. The person wearing the mask would channel the spirit and connect the tribe to the spirits.)
It is called "Internet Dweller". Why was internet in its name as this is obviously a bunch of televisions? I had never encountered art about the internet. My vocation is supported by the internet so this was of interest to me.
The artist of the piece was Nam June Paik and it contains a hidden message.
The Playfulness of Nam June Paik
That week I absorbed a coffee table book of Nam June Paik's work. I learned of his impact on video art, the fluxus movement and public television. His many multi channel video art pieces. And also his coining of the phrase Electronic Super highway. I found his work playful and he would experiment until he got something that worked visually. Many of his early works allowed for people to interact with the work by turning knobs or running a cassette tape head over magnetic tape stuck to the wall.
I began researching more of Nam June Paik's work with a focus on this Internet Dweller in particular. I found reports that there was more than one of them. It was part of a show called "The Electronic Superhighway: Travels with Nam June Paik" and "The Electronic Superhighway: Nam June Paik in the 90s" The show ran between 1994 - 1998 and contained the famous "Nam June Paik, Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii" 51 channel piece.
CyberTown
The show also contained many pieces inspired by internet services and servers in a section called CyberTown. The exhibit was even presented on the internet by a South Korean company.
Note the Internet Dweller in the bottom right corner of the image above. This is how I found 'sw.six.sa' the dweller with the shortest name. View it at the Wayback Machine.
So the Twin Farms "Internet Dweller" must have a longer name. Twin Farms had no record of the rest of its name.
In CyberTown there were physical manifestations of internet services and people who use them. There was the services: BBS, Encoder, WareZ (software), Cyberforum, Bio-Neural Net, e-mail server, video server, world wide web, WAIS Station Wide Area Information Server.
And roles people play on the internet: Hacker Newbie, tele-commuter, SYS Cop, Couch Potato, Vidiot Surfer. Couch Potato was the only piece connected to the internet as you could send it e-mail and faxes.
I wish I could find video of this exhibition. There were so many video sculptures there that are now scattered around the world.
In the next post I am surprised by the names of the Internet Dwellers. How many can I find?