"Becoming Robot"- Extra Credit Blog

The exhibit “Becoming Robot” featuring the works of Nam June Paik was very interesting.  For an artist of his time, his works were very advanced and expressed concepts of technology in life that remain true to this day.  I thought his incorporation of televisions was a really unique idea.  I have never thought of televisions or screens as an art or an object that could be displayed as one.  I also noticed how he managed to show the human form in his work a few times.  Using televisions to create robots, which display the human form, in Family of Robot was something I had never heard of before or even imagined to be a thing.  Creating the form of a typical family out of something so common was a nice twist on his robot idea.  Although, Family of Robot was a lot more visually appealing than Robot K-456, the fact that Paik was able to create a functional robot that acted as a human, by even “defecating”, is amazing.  Robot K-456 is a perfect example of how Paik’s work constantly portrayed the human form.

Paik’s goal in his work seems to have been to show how technology has become a part of our everyday lives and how there is a connection between the human body and technology.  This can be seen through the TV Chair and TV Bra for Living Sculpture.  TV Chair featured a regular chair with a television facing upwards from under the seat, which could be seen through a clear seat.  TV Bra for Living Sculpture was shown in a featured video of the live performance where a woman wore a bra made out of two small televisions and played an instrument.  These two works attributed a technological characteristic to two basic things people use everyday, a chair and a bra.  Paik definitely had a distinctive view on technology and he succeeded in making a statement with his work by showing what truly interested him.  The fact that he was so interested in technology during his time leaves the question of what he would think had he still been alive today.  It would be interesting to hear or even see an artwork response to the technologies and flat screens that are in use in our current time.