Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik was born on July 20, 193s, in Seoul Korea. Paik studied music history, art history, and philosophy at the University of Tokyo, where he graduated with a dissertation on Arnold Schoenberg. He then went to Germany in 1956 to continue the study of music history at the University of Munich. In Germany he met Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage who inspired Paik into electronic art. Both composers, Stockhausen and Cage influenced Paik through their ideas of composition and performance. Paik worked with Stockhausen in a studio for Electronic Music. He then got involved with the post neo-Dada art movement, fluxus. Fluxus was founded by George Maciunas.George invited Paik to join his group of artists and he accepted. Then he returned to Japan to conduct experiments with electromagnets and colour television, alongside electronic engineer Shuya Abe. The rise of new technology led him to use the video image. Today he is known as the father of video art and influences the younger generation of artists