UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Re: Paik. On time, changeability and identity in the conservation of Nam June Paik’s multimedia installations Hölling, H.B. Publication date 2013 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Hölling, H. B. (2013). Re: Paik. On time, changeability and identity in the conservation of Nam June Paik’s multimedia installations. Boxpress. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. 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UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:03 Oct 2021 INVITATION INVITATION Doctoral Thesis - Public Defence Doctoral Thesis - Public Defence You are cordially invited You are cordially invited to attend to attend the PUBLIC DEFENSE the PUBLIC DEFENSE of the doctoral thesis of the doctoral thesis RE: PAIK RE: PAIK On TIME, Changeability On TIME, Changeability and IDENTITY and IDENTITY in the CONSERVATION in the CONSERVATION of Nam June Paik‘s of Nam June Paik‘s Multimedia Installations Multimedia Installations The DEFENCE will take place The DEFENCE will take place on 20 September, 2013, on 20 September, 2013, 13:00 hours 13:00 hours at the Oude Lutherse Kerk (Aula) at the Oude Lutherse Kerk (Aula) Singel 411, Singel 411, 1012 WN AMSTERDAM 1012 WN AMSTERDAM and it will be followed and it will be followed by a reception. by a reception. RVSP: RVSP: [email protected] [email protected] Hanna B. Hölling Hanna B. Hölling Re: PAIK ON TIME, CHANGEABILITY AND IDENTITY IN THE CONSERVATION OF NAM JUNE PAIK’S MULTIMEDIA INSTALLATIONS Hanna Barbara Hölling This research was made possible through the Dutch Scientific Organisation (NWO) research grant 2009-2013 and has been realised as a part of the research project New Strategies in the Conservation of Contemporary Art at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), Maastricht University (MU) and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE). The production of this thesis was kindly supported by Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis (ASCA) and NWO. Cover design: Hanna Hölling, Johannes Hedinger, Tabea Guhl Printed & Lay Out by: Proefschriftmaken.nl || Uitgeverij BOXPress Published by: Uitgeverij BOXPress, ‘s-Hertogenbosch Re: PAIK ON TIME, CHANGEABILITY AND IDENTITY IN THE CONSERVATION OF NAM JUNE PAIK’S MULTIMEDIA INSTALLATIONS ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Aula der Universiteit op vrijdag 20 september 2013, te 13:00 uur door Hanna Barbara Hölling geboren te Zabrze, Polen Promotiecommissie Promotor: Prof. dr. D.A. Cherry Co-promotor: Prof. dr. G. Wharton Overige Leden: Prof. dr. C.P. Lindner Prof. dr. J.J. Noordegraaf Prof. dr. C.J.M. Zijlmans Dr. J.M. Bolten Dr. P. Laurenson Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen Table of Contents List of figures ....................................................................9 Acknowledgements .............................................................17 Introduction: Rethinking the Object of Conservation in Multimedia Installations . 21 I . CONCEPT AND MATERIALITY Weighing up the Concept and Material in Multimedia Installations . 43 Chapter 1. Two Works by Nam June Paik . 47 1.1 Arche Noah 1.2 TV Garden Chapter 2 . On the Threshold of Materialities: Conceptual and Material Aspects of Media Art . 63 2.1 How Conceptual is Paik’s Media Art? 2.2 Rewriting Artworks: Scores – Instructions – Certificates 2.3 From Delegated Labour to Extended Collaboration 2.4 Towards Multimedia Installation as Rematerialisation of a Concept Chapter 3 . Musical Roots of Paik’s Performed and Performative Media . 81 3.1 Fluxus-Stockhausen-Cage: Paik’s Musical Connections 3.2 From Performing Arts to Performative Objects 3.3 On Uniqueness and Iterations in Paik’s Media Performances 3.4 Crossing Goodman’s Distinctions: Duality in Paik’s Multimedia 3.5 The Autographic Moment 3.6 Revisiting Authorship: Multimedia and the Concept of Open Work 3.7 Towards Changeability 5 Table of Contents II . TIME AND CHANGEABILITY Understanding Time Through Change . 107 Chapter 4 . Zen for Film .................................................... 111 4.1 Zen in Three Episodes 4.2 The Event, Object and Process: Zen for Film Chapter 5 . Changeability and Paik’s Multimedia . 127 5.1 The Many Forms of Changeability in Paik’s Multimedia Installations 5.2 Changeability Related to the Conceptual Level of an Artwork 5.3 From Interactivity to Relics: Changeability and the Participatory Artwork 5.4 Changeability and the Artwork’s Adaptation to Space 5.5 Upgrade of Display and Playback Formats 5.6 Beyond the Limits: The Artwork’s Further Development 5.7 Broadening Horizons Through the Acceptance of Change Chapter 6 . Time and Conservation . 149 6.1 Towards Formulating Questions for a Temporal Critique of Conservation 6.2 Implied Linearity: Freeze Frame, Singular Condition and Reversibility 6.3 The ‘Measurable’ Paradigms of Time and Space in Conservation. 6.4 Bergsonian Time Versus Time of the Homogenous Magnitudes 6.5 The Captive Moment: Motion as Continuum Versus Instance as a Photogram 6.6 Translating Time, Transforming Objects: What Conservation Could Learn From Bergson Chapter 7 . Heterotemporalities: Inside and Outside of the Medium . 171 7.1 Media Temporalities: Film-, Video-, and Paik Time 7.2 Cinematic Time: The Time of the Film 7.3 Television and Video Time 7.4 Conservation as a Temporal Translation and Temporal Forms of Artworks 7.5 Transcending Obsolescence? The Paradox of Ruins 7.6 The Many Times of an Object 7.7 Inside and Outside Time 7.8 Museum Time 7.9 Merging Temporalities: the Conservation Narrative 6 Table of Contents III . ARCHIVE AND IDENTITY Persistence of Identity Through Change: The Ship of Theseus . 209 Chapter 8 . The Material and the Immaterial Archive . 217 8.1 What is an Archive? 8.2 The Museum Archive and its Documentary Dimension 8.3 Archival Dispersion: Inside and Outside the Museum 8.4 The System of Accessibility 8.5 Beyond the Material Repository: Towards the Virtual and Real 8.6 The Non-Physical Dimension of the Archive: Memory and Tacit Knowledge 8.7 Conservation Narrative in Between Archival Realms Chapter 9 . Archival Implications . 239 9.1 Archive in Perspective 9.2 Archival Judgements 9.3 From the Virtual to the Actual 9.4 Archival Actualisation: Back to Creative Conservation? 9.5 From the Archive to an Artwork and the Artwork Meaning Archive 9.6 Archival Turn: Temporal Materiality, Endurance and Continuity CONCLUSION: The Many Archai of Conservation . 257 Bibliography ..................................................................263 Archives Conversations Books, articles and conference papers Audio and video recordings Images .......................................................................293 Appendix .....................................................................331 Samenvatting (summary in Dutch) ..............................................337 Résumé .......................................................................343 7 8 List of figures1 Figure 0 .1 Nam June Paik, Canopus (1989) Collection of the ZKM Karlsruhe Source: ZKM Figure 0 .2 Nam June Paik, Canopus (1989) Collection of the ZKM Karlsruhe Installation view after the damage that occurred on December 8, 2008, EnBW Karlsruhe. Source: ZKM, archive of the conservation department Figure 0 .3 Nam June Paik, Canopus (1989) Collection of the ZKM Karlsruhe Documentation of the damage that occurred on December 8, 2008. Source: ZKM, archive of the conservation department Figure 0 .4 Nam June Paik, Canopus (1989) during the restoration at the ZKM in 2009: selecting and collecting the bits and pieces of the monitors Source: ZKM, archive of the conservation department Photograph: Hanna Hölling Figure 0 .5 Elements of the monitors of Canopus after restoration Source: ZKM, archive of the conservation department Photograph: Hanna Hölling Figure 1 .1 Nam June Paik, Arche Noah (1989) Various manifestations 1989 – 2009 Photographs: Helge Mundt, Weisses Haus, Hamburg, and Steffen Harms, Karlsruhe. Figure 1 .2 Nam June Paik, Arche Noah (1989) Installation view at Weisses Haus, Hamburg, 1989 Photograph: Helge Mundt Figure 1 .3 Nam June Paik, Arche Noah (1989) Installation view on the occasion of Multimediale 2, Opel Factory, Karlsruhe, 1991 Photograph: Thomas Goldschmidt 1 All websites were accessed between March and April 2013 9 List of figures Figure 1 .4 Nam June Paik, Arche Noah (1989). Collection of the ZKM Karlsruhe Installation view during the test re-installation at the ZKM in 2008 Photographs: Steffen Harms Source: Brümmer, Johannes at al. Nam June