Reflecting on 60 Years of Nam June Paik Research: International Academic Symposium to Be Held on April 23

The Korea Arts Council announced on April 15 that, together with the Nam June Paik Art Center, it will co-host the international academic symposium "Paik After Paik" at the Grand Theater of the Arko Arts Theater in Seoul on April 23, to mark the 20th anniversary of the passing of Nam June Paik, the pioneer of video art.

Poster for the international academic symposium "Paik After Paik." Korea Arts & Culture Education Service

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This symposium has been organized to review the trajectory of Nam June Paik research over the past 60 years and to discuss how his legacy can be reinterpreted within contemporary discourses of art, technology, and culture. Nine leading researchers from Korea and abroad will participate, highlighting Nam June Paik not as a completed historical figure, but as a subject for ongoing study continuously reconstituted within today's technological and intellectual environment.

The event will consist of a keynote speech, two sessions, and a panel discussion. The keynote address will be delivered by Hannah Higgins, professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, who will reinterpret Paik's experiments from the 1960s in connection with the conditions of learning and knowledge production in today's era of artificial intelligence.

Part 1, "The Structural Landscape of Nam June Paik Research," will examine research methodologies and institutional foundations, focusing on curatorial practices, media theory, and archives. Participants include Suk-Kyung Lee, director of The Whitworth at the University of Manchester, Lev Manovich, distinguished professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Hannah Faiers, coordinator of the Nam June Paik Archive Collection at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and art historian Bu-Kyung Son.

Part 2 will address points of intersection between 21st-century discourses-such as data science, machines and labor, posthumanism, and transnational cultural practices-and Nam June Paik research. Presenters include Jung-Ah Woo, professor at Pohang University of Science and Technology, Douglas Barrett, assistant professor at Syracuse University, Hyun-Ae Lee, research professor at Chung-Ang University, and Jun Okada, associate professor at Emerson College.

The symposium aims to establish an international research network for Nam June Paik studies by connecting researchers, institutions, and archives in Korea and abroad. It marks the first joint academic project promoted since the Korea Arts Council and the Nam June Paik Art Center signed a work agreement in December last year, and is expected to serve as a starting point for further cooperation through future archival research, journal publications, and international researcher exchanges.

Byung-Kook Chung, chairperson of the Korea Arts Council, stated, "We hope this symposium will serve as an opportunity to expand Paik research through cooperation with the Nam June Paik Art Center."

Nam-Hee Park, director of the Nam June Paik Art Center, said, "This is an opportunity to reflect on the accumulated achievements of Paik research and to reconsider them within the technological and intellectual context of our time," adding, "We hope it will encourage viewing Nam June Paik not as a single historical figure, but as an open subject of research shaping the present and future."

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