Breathing in Artificiality: Nam June Paik’s TV Fish (1975) and Park Hyun-ki’s TV Fishbowl (1979)
This paper explores Nam June Paik’s TV Fish (1975) and Park Hyun-ki’s TV Fishbowl
(1979), focusing on how each video work engages with technical images of nature within the
distinct media environments of the US and South Korea, respectively. Park Hyun-ki, a
pioneering figure in the regional field of Korean video art, became conscious of using video
as an artistic medium after encountering a copy of Paik’s Global Groove (1973) in 1974.
Influenced yet distinct, Park pursed a uniquely “de-technologized” approach to video as seen
in his TV Stone Tower (1978). Despite the acknowledged influence, specific intersections
between Paik and Park’s practices remain inadequately explored. In this context, an analysis
of these two visually and materially resonant pieces provides a productive starting point for
discussing their divergences and affinities.
Paik’s TV Fish arranges fishbowls directly in front of television monitors in a row, creating a
layered visual field where live fish appear to swim within electronic imagery, akin to an
analog form of augmented reality. In contrast, Park’s TV Fishbowl makes the television
monitor itself look like a technological fishbowl: not merely a display of recorded fishbowl
footage, but a sophistically framed video that evokes the verisimilitude of the image and its
physical base simultaneously. Given the subtle arrangement of technological media and
natural elements in the works, this paper aims to identify the distinctive aesthetic structures of each work and further discuss how their approaches reflect the specific media infrastructures of respective regions.
(1979), focusing on how each video work engages with technical images of nature within the
distinct media environments of the US and South Korea, respectively. Park Hyun-ki, a
pioneering figure in the regional field of Korean video art, became conscious of using video
as an artistic medium after encountering a copy of Paik’s Global Groove (1973) in 1974.
Influenced yet distinct, Park pursed a uniquely “de-technologized” approach to video as seen
in his TV Stone Tower (1978). Despite the acknowledged influence, specific intersections
between Paik and Park’s practices remain inadequately explored. In this context, an analysis
of these two visually and materially resonant pieces provides a productive starting point for
discussing their divergences and affinities.
Paik’s TV Fish arranges fishbowls directly in front of television monitors in a row, creating a
layered visual field where live fish appear to swim within electronic imagery, akin to an
analog form of augmented reality. In contrast, Park’s TV Fishbowl makes the television
monitor itself look like a technological fishbowl: not merely a display of recorded fishbowl
footage, but a sophistically framed video that evokes the verisimilitude of the image and its
physical base simultaneously. Given the subtle arrangement of technological media and
natural elements in the works, this paper aims to identify the distinctive aesthetic structures of each work and further discuss how their approaches reflect the specific media infrastructures of respective regions.