The Styrous® Viewfinder: Nam June Paik ~ The robots

May 16, 2021

Nam June Paik ~ The robots

Li Tai Po - 1987

Being a Sci-Fi addict since my early teens, the robot/television installations of Nam June Paik were right up my alley; they snagged me completely and I've been fascinated with all of his other work ever since (link below).

In 1963 Paik began visiting Tokyo regularly to study color television and robotics. It was there that he met Japanese engineer and electronics expert Shuya Abe, with whom he collaborated on his first robotic work, Robot K-456, in 1964.

Fred Barzyk, Shuya Abe, and Nam June Paik

WGBH-TV, Boston, circa 1969

photo by Conrad White

This was an anthropomorphised robotic skeleton that was able to move, make noises and imitate a range of human actions.

Robot K-456, 1964

(above & below)

This and subsequent robotic works made by Paik reveal his ongoing interest in the connection between technology and the human body, one that continued until the end of his career when he made Bakelite Robot.

Of all his robots, Bakelite Robot is my favorite, perhaps because although Bakelite was a product of the thirties, I remember the material still in use in the forties and radio was my form of entertainment. It is a smaller than life-size sculpture of a robot constructed from nine vintage Bakelite radios. The radios are joined together in a humanoid shape. The dials on the front of four of the radios have been removed, creating hollow circular spaces into which LCD television monitors have been inserted. These television monitors screen videotape specifically developed for the artwork, composed of footage from robot and science fiction films, recordings of vintage robot toys and footage from earlier video edits. Although the sculpture takes the form of a robot, it is not animated. An impression of the robot’s ‘movement’ is instead given by the video footage playing on the screens, which are situated on the hands, knee and hip of the robot (link below).

Bakelite Robot 2002

Bakelite Robot was produced in 2002, late in Paik’s career, when the artist was working in New York. Acquired from thrift stores and markets, the radios in Bakelite Robot have a vintage appearance. Bakelite had been developed by Belgian-born chemist Leo Baekeland in Yonkers, New York, in 1907 and was one of the earliest plastics to be introduced into the modern home. It was favored for its heat-resistant properties, electrical non-conductivity and the fact that it was inexpensive and hard-wearing, and was used in a number of products including radio and telephone casings, kitchenware and children’s toys.