I still do not forget my weird memory, like an electric shock, when I was a child. During New Year’s Day in January 1, 1984, my age was 12 years old, I meet an extra terrestrial on a television. The extra terrestrial showed strange and marvelous images or sounds on the television. I was thinking that the alien from another planet invaded our Earth and then, they are controlling every broadcasting station in the world.
After long time, when I was studying in high school, I finally knew what going on was in my strange experience in 1984. The extra terrestrial in my memory was a video artist, Nam June Paik, the father of video arts, and the image show was “Good Morning Mr. Orwell”; he aired the video show, linked New York, Paris, and other big cities in the world though a satellite. Mr. Paik has strong effect on me to see another filed which can give new ideas to change people’ viewpoints. As many artists or other people have been inspired, I also have been getting inspiration from my extra terrestrial, Mr. Paik, since I knew him; I think that he has effect on perfectly and absolutely at least one person who is me.
Like my experience, I think that artists have to give people a new way, idea, solution, inspiration, vision, and so on to change people’s stereotypes and keep a right of human in society; I do not agree that most artists must become a socialist, a politician, or a good leader of group. For example, Mr. Paik tried doing something new beyond people’s negative mind on differences in the world. When Mr. Paik was using a satellite as an artwork, many countries especially the United States and Soviet Union are using the satellites to keep their idealism as the military equipment. Moreover, Mr. Paik showed why artist have to find new way. According to his interview in the newspaper O Glovo(1988), “The context is the content; the content is the context. This means that the fine arts have always been interested in the new horizons of possibilities. When Picasso created Cubism, he did so because he was tired of Impressionism. Monet created Impressionism because he was tired of Academicism ÜÜ artists have always been interested in the new sensibility, in exploring new possibilities”. I really agree with his viewpoints. I also discover new possibilities on the arts. Now I am studying laser arts as a new possibility on visual communications and new video arts that is my purpose of art like acts of Monet, Picasso, and Nam June Paik.
Doo-Sung Yoo