Random Access

Content Type

Artwork

Artist

Nam June Paik

Dating

1963, reconstructed 2000

Medium

Strips of audiotape, open reel audio deck, extended playback head and speakers
Dimensions variable

Credits

Collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Purchased with funds contributed by the International Director’s Council and Executive Committee Members: Ann Ames, Edythe Broad, Henry Buhl, Elaine Terner Cooper, Dimitris Daskalopoulos, Harry David, Gail May Engelberg, Ronnie Heyman, Dakis Joannou, Cindy Johnson, Barbara Lane, Linda Macklowe, Peter Norton, Willem Peppler, Denise Rich, Simonetta Seragnoli, David Teiger, Ginny Williams, and Elliot K. Wolk, 2001

This interactive installation recreates the audiotape collage on the wall of the basement in Paik’s 1963 exhibition Exposition of Music—Electronic Television. Paik described it as a “city map and abstract painting, sight and sound and action.” Participants can “play” the work by running the top side of the extended player head over the magnetic tape on the wall, and are free to either follow one strip of tape or cut across several. Depending on the speed of the gesture, the sounds picked up by the head may be distorted or difficult to hear. There is no “right” way of playing Random Access: each mix of sounds produced is a new and unique composition.