Happy Birthday Nam June Paik

With Nam June Paik's massive Electronic Highway: Continental United States and Alaska and Hawaii installment piece flashing and blinking behind them, 3 associates of the famed video artist - a museum curator for media arts, a former student and now visual artist himself, and a nephew - shared background and personal stories about Paik here at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art last night.

The special program was held on the anniversary of what would have been Paik's 80th birthday. The artist, called the father of video art who is credited with coining the term "information superhighway," died in 2006.

"He was the most original thinker I ever met," said John Hanhardt, senior museum curator and a long-time friend of Paik's. "When you talked to him, you could almost see ideas being processed in front of your eyes. He was a visionary. He anticipated the internet; he anticipated our video world. He once said we would see 'TV Guide as thick as a phone book'"

Electronic Highway is one of 3 of Paik's works on permanent display at the SMoAA. Highway is a map recreating the United States made out of neon and video display monitors. It consists of 336 TVs of various sizes, 509 DVD players, 3,750 feet of cable and 575 feet of bright, multi-colored neon tubing. On the screens, videos representing Paik's takes on each of the states constantly play in differing combinations. For example, you can see skiing in Colorado and surfing in Hawaii. Or scenes from the Wizard of Oz for Kansas and Gone with the Wind for Georgia.

German artist Kota Ezawa, who describes his art as video archeology, said his time as Paik's student greatly influenced his work.

Ezawa said Paik was an uncoventional teacher. "He rejected the traditional label of teacher. He was way out there. He didn't want to tell us what to do. He wanted to start a conversation," he said.

The artist recalled one time when Paik took all his students to a casino and gave them each some money to gamble with.  "That may seem not to have much to do with art, but I think he wanted to show us that creating art is a gamble," Ezawa said.

Paik's nephew Ken Hakuta said he always jokingly referred to his uncle as "crazy."  Hakuta remembers his uncle telling his mother that she should let her son watch more TV. Hakuta also said his uncle helped him end his unsuccessful piano career. Paik used the piano that Hakuta used for practice for a taped performance. "He destroyed our piano and that was the end of my piano playing," Hakuta said.

As a teenager, Hakuta was able to visit his uncle in New York. At that timer, Paik was working with a female cellist who wore a TV bra as part of their performance art.  "She was a former homecoming queen from the University of Arkansas and my job was to help her off with her bra. Her breasts were the first breasts I ever saw and I have to thank my uncle for that," Hakuta said.

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Last night's program could be considered a precursor to an extensive, retrospective exhibition of Paik's works at the museum which is scheduled to open in December of this year.