Arrival
Since the beginning of video art, Nam June Paik developed a range of strategies to shape the medium, yet unique to this medium is rapid technological change and it’s social implications.
In 1964, Paik came to New York, where his “discovery” of the Sony Portapak and video art has become one of video art’s most enduring, if apocryphal, legends. According to this tale, Paik bought one of the first Sony Portapaks to be manufactured for the consumer market. He made his first tape the same day, recording Pope Paul VI’s visit to New York from a cab window; the tape was then exhibited at the Cafe a Go Go.