Nam June Paik

Pioneer of video art who bridged technology and avant-garde creativity

Nam June Paik (1932-2006), the Korean-American artist often called the 'father of video art', revolutionized contemporary art through radical technological experiments. His 1963 exhibition Exposition of Music-Electronic Television featured manipulated TV sets - the first time television was used as raw artistic material.

Paik foresaw the 'electronic super highway' concept in 1974, predicting our internet age. His iconic works like TV Buddha (1974) and Global Groove (1973) combined Buddhist philosophy with cathode ray tubes, creating meditations on technology's spiritual implications. Collaborations with artists like Charlotte Moorman pushed boundaries of performance art.

What makes Paik truly unique was his ability to hack emerging technologies before they became mainstream. He modified Sony's first Portapak camera in 1965 to create guerrilla video art, declaring Television has been attacking us all our lives - now we can attack it back.