0.1.1.0. – the duality of the digital medium and video art : thoughts on Global Groove
Having been looking at Nam June Paik’s “Global Groove” (1973), made at the adolescence of the video art age, there is apparent an overriding rhythm to the medium. 0 then 1, or 1 then 0. It’s here or there.
In Paik’s Global Groove, he is critical of the medium (TV) while utilizing it (video) at the same time. There is a push pull with history and modernity, classical and contemporary times, an old vs new game as old as humanity.
John Cage also references his observation of this duality with his sensation of two distinct sounds he experienced in a silent room, which he was led to understand as two integral manifestation of his body. “The high sound is that of the nervous system in operation and the low sound is the blood in circulation.” (John Cage) He has recognized the duality that exists within all bodies.
There is a very experimental quality to these early works, as the artists are playing around with the medium to see what it can do. Many of the early works are not saying much beyond the medium itself, and sometimes feel gimmicky. In Global Groove, there are the interruptions between the clips, and the Pepsi commercial as an actual intermezzo, one an overt commentary on the television watching habit of channel switching and the other stating the now obvious omnipresence of advertising. I often wonder if these visual candy pieces are no more than a psychedelic drug age phenomenon. [They do still continue however…but that’s another post (I’ve read the syllabus).]
I am especially lost at the end as the cellist justifies what she is doing and then politics enter into the work. As the Catalyst course instructor Randall Packer has stated, Paik is examining the “effects of the medium on our psychic condition”. It seems pretty bleak to me, circa 1973.
I have barely begun to mine the idea that is swirling around in my head, I will follow it along and further explore these ideas of duality in future posts, mentioning artists including Joan Jonas, Bill Viola among others.
Be sure to come back, y’all.
Cofrin Contemporary 