Nam June Paik

Megatron/Matrix

Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing?

Nam June Paik is known as ‘the father of video art’ who practiced from the early 1950s to a few years prior to his death in 2006 (The Art Story, n.d).

What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?)

I have chosen to analyse the Megatron/Matrix. The photo is retrieved from https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/megatronmatrix-36486

With the photo or video, you are examining when was it produced (date)?

The Megatron/Matrix was produced in 1995.

How was the photo or video authored?

The Megatron/Matrix is made up of 215 monitors on an eight-channel system with custom electronics; colour, sound (SAAM, n.d). In turn, to author this piece, Paik would have had to decide how to coordinate what each individual monitor displays in order to create movement that spreads beyond a single monitor.  The displays vary from colours to short clips. Overall, the aim of the piece was to convey ‘a world without borders in the electronic age’ (SAAM, n.d).

How was the photo or video published?

As the Megatron/Matrix is a self contained piece of work, all components would have been stored on the eight-channel system. Therefore, each individual component such as clip, colour or sound, would have been published within the technology of the system.

How was the photo or video distributed?

The Megatron/Matrix could only be distributed through exhibiting the complete work. The work was displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C, USA. The museum purchased the piece of work and displayed it various times since its production. The work has not been on display since 2013 (SAAM, n.d). In turn, as the museum owns it, they decide when the work is distributed to museum-goers. In saying this, the work has been recorded and so, such as the embedded video, the work is independently distributed online.

References:

Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), n.d, Megatron/Matrix, Smithsonian American Art Museum, viewed 8 April 2019, <https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/megatronmatrix-36486>.

Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), n.d, Nam June Paik: Global Visionary, Smithsonian American Art Museum, viewed 13 April 2019, <https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/paik>.

The Art Story, n.d, Nam June Paik, The Art Story, viewed 8 April 2019, <https://www.theartstory.org/artist-paik-nam-june.htm>.