A comparative and practice-based study on the transformative effects at play in the digital exhibition of a body of non-digital native artworks (some artworks by artist N. J. Paik serving as a mean of understanding)

The Paik Replayed research project follows a year of preliminary study (2021–2022) conducted by Prof. P. Keller at ECAL / University of Art and Design Lausanne (HES-SO), in partnership with Curator SangAe Park at the Nam June Paik Art Center in South Korea, and based on the museum’s unique collection of videos and artworks by Korean artist Nam June Paik (1932–2006), as well as archives relating to his practice. It resulted in a prototype of digital exhibition.
The present research project consists, on the one hand, of a comparative study of the prototype and its online exhibition format for a selection of the artist’s digitized artworks resulting from this initial phase. It also involves observing the presence and informal circulation of this same corpus on the network (e.g. fragments, poor-quality digital copies, 3D scans, etc.), its dissemination to a wider audience and how this may affect the reception of the artworks. On the other hand, the further development of a new digital exhibition based on an adapted corpus enables new learning and opens up the possibility of publishing the results in open access, and disseminating them to a more general public beyond the narrow academic circle.

In turn, the knowledge gained about the processes of transposing exhibition formats and their artworks into the networked digital, as well as the establishment of a critical and compared typology of their forms, content, digitization procedures and modes of reception, enables curators, digital exhibition designers, and art historians, to better identify and understand the challenges of this undertaking. They benefit from updated learning and best practice recommendations.

Considering a selection of N. J. Paik’s original artworks and their digital exhibition as our initial case study (2020–2021) provided a precise context for the early development of an unpublished, and privately accessible prototype. Paik’s work is known for seeking to move beyond the institutional structure of the museum and reach a wider audience, particularly since the late 1960s through video and broadcast television. It constituted a limited initial corpus suited to our research goals with respect to the experience of online exhibition of originally non-digital artworks and their transposition to a new medium. Since the artist’s death in 2006, the reception of his artistic practice, otherwise studied in detail before in art history, has evolved and needs to be reconsidered.
These circumstances open a new perspective on the study of Paik’s work in a global context of permanent online accessibility. For much of N. J. Paik’s work is today accessible to the public through rare retrospective exhibitions in major museums and galleries, under strict rules, and in person. With very few and recent exceptions (notably since late 2022 the Paik’s Video Study), digital access remains limited to documentation material. This situation is at odds with the artist’s intent for widespread and unrestricted circulation of artworks, including through scores, versioning, and television broadcasting. Consequently, and taking advantage of this perceived absence, digital copies of his artworks, particularly single channel videos, have started circulating online with little mediation alongside official versions. Some copies or facsimiles stay as certified versions, while many others are non-certified and of poor quality, incomplete, or modified. Nonetheless, they often serve as the primary or only means of accessing the artist’s works for much of the public, now accustomed to instant streaming and seamless digital accessibility.

Our main research question, in this online context, is whether providing remote access to a curated set of digitized artworks, through an advanced digital and immersive exhibition, facilitates their proper dissemination or alters their nature and perception. We also investigate the further online circulation of these artworks accessible through websites and search engines, exploring the existence of alternative digital copies on the network or within existing datasets. By examining this seemingly uncontrolled extension of the online museum, we evaluate how it affects the accessibility, understanding, and circulation of the curated corpus of artworks.
The knowledge gained from these questions and through the initial, and later co-development of a digital exhibition on Paik—and later on with an adjusted corpus, to be experienced remotely—their comparison with our consolidated typology of online exhibition cases, bolstered by peer feedback, enables us to generalize and fill gaps in knowledge about the creation of digital exhibitions and their restitution of artworks. This in turn allows us to evaluate the online exhibition experience itself, the processes of transposing artworks into digital media, sometimes into diminished forms and formats, and, in a minor way, to address issues related to digital copyright and ownership issues.

Due to the international relevance of the corpus, which has only recently been assembled and made available for academic study, we expect the research results to reach other bodies of works, an international audience and serve for collections of a similar nature and significance in other museums.

PK – 2023