INTERNET BUDDHA (after Nam June Paik)

Nam June Paik’s TV Buddha (1976) is a signature historical work exemplifying the principles of THE NEXT ART-OF-PEACE BIENNALE 2015-2017. It engages dynamics of East and West, primordially and plurality, the persistence of ancient wisdom and the acceleration of contemporary technology. It also constructs a circular loop of interdependence drawing together the objects of the Buddha, the camera and the monitor into performative engagement with each other. This is achieved through the instantaneity of the real-time recording and playback which reflects the static Buddha back on itself. This is where the time-based aspect of the work lies and that which generates its performative quality. Added to this is the spectator viewing and regarding the whole system as microcosm and macrocosm at the same time. Working to ‘seize the means of dissemination’, Paik saw in the fluid materiality of video the potential of networked broadcast and exchange. His ‘Global Groove’ is arguably the video manifestation of Filliou’s principles of ‘The Eternal Network’. The exhibition, What is Peace? (Answer Here), sought to adopt curatorial principles differing from the platform of the retrospective, thematic, group show. Nonetheless, Paik’s work could be appropriately détourned into another, namely Internet Buddha where the close-circuit camera is replaced by a webcam and the TV monitor by a laptop so the image of the Buddha can be broadcast online elsewhere simultaneously. The principle of the work becomes of particular relevance to the contemporary media landscape.