Global Groove
Nam June Paik American, born Korea
in collaboration with John Godfrey American
Not on view
Combining innovative video techniques (including colorization, video feedback, and magnetic scan modulation) with radical editing, Global Groove imagines channel surfing on a television from the future. A collaboration between artist Nam June Paik and John Godfrey (head engineer for WNET, New York City’s public television station in the 1970s), the video presents a colorful collage of clips including a diverse group of musicians and dancers intercut with commercial footage and previous video work by Paik. In addition to appearances by Allen Ginsberg, Merce Cunningham, and John Cage, Charlotte Moorman plays the TV Cello in an increasingly frenetic frolic through Paik’s conjured global programming. Paik advocated for television as a democratic medium free from paywalls and nationalist barriers, and his seminal video stands in stark contrast to the reality of contemporary broadcasting.
