It seems that the biggest issue with understanding video as
art, at its inception, was that there was no basis for comparison. Video was a
new medium, with a clear practical use; it was easy to see its use as a tool for
documenting events, and indeed that’s what most early videos were. It took longer,
however, to realize that video could be used as (or in) a work of art.
Many of Nam June Paik’s works of video art crossed the
boundaries of various media, incorporating performance, sound, and interaction
with the audience in his pieces. He was also strongly influenced by John Cage,
and this is evident in much of his work. For example, his piece “Zen for Film”
(1962) consists of a video of a white box on a black background – with no sound
– for eight minutes. This video was part of the Fluxfilm Anthology, a series of
videos from various artists throughout the sixties exploring the avant-garde
side of video as art.
The video can be found here: http://www.ubu.com/film/fluxfilm01_paik.html
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