Zen for TV? Nam June Paik’s “Global Groove” and “A Tribute to John Cage” (1973)

Abstract

This essay examines Nam June Paik’s 1973 documentary, A Tribute to John Cage, in the context of identity politics and technological discourse surrounding video technology. In Paik’s tribute, Cage is seen less as a commanding figure of the American neo-avant-garde than as the solitary sage witnessing the transformation of his aesthetic by a new generation of artists and composers. Paik had witnessed Cage’s rise from ”˜gadfly to guru’ in the New York Downtown music scene during the 1960s, and his documentary perspective exemplifies the multifarious interpretations of Cage’s aesthetic of chance, indeterminacy, and Zen Buddhism. In conjunction with his single-channel video work, Global Groove, Paik’s approach to video subverted the traditional codes of commercial documentary television through fast-paced segments, commenting on the concept of televisual ”˜flow’ and highlighting the mechanical apparatus of television technology.