(08/03) Re.: Nam June Paik exhibit.

The changing of the face and yet it is recognisable as such, is something I would like to explore within my own work. Seeing it done in a digital medium though shows how the medium allows quick changes that an audience will automatically accept. The digital medium allows the expression of many ideas in one succinct narrative. Though it may not be telling a specific story it does take the viewer a specific pathway and thus a particular way, perspective through which to view their material. The use of switching visual language in this work specifically gives a fantastical element to the media, its shifting format unpredictable giving the subject an allure.

I like the comparative aspect of this piece, the before and after, showing exactly what is different. The how though in this piece is not obvious, the process of how they got that outcome when the set up of each looks identical. It makes you as the viewer very air of what aspect has changed and thus hone in on. The change is also much more dramatic because it is on black and white footage. The older format spliced and warped by the coloured lines could almost be seen as a mockery of the original. When from a different stand point it is an appreciation of it.

As someone who plays an instrument there was something absurdly wrong seeing a piano tampered with, sacrilege. As your taught, and for me from a young age, to treat it with care and maintain it. It’s interesting to see what happens when the older art is challenged And its borders pushed.