(signal beeps) (classical violin playing) (violin music distorting) - [Narrator] Although I'm an artist, I'm not really concerned about so said art world.

(classic violin playing) I'm concerned to whole world.

(zapping) (banging) (quick ascending note) (crashing) - Hello.

Today, I thought we could talk about someone who's widely regarded as the father of video art.

- Nam June Paik, avant garde musician, self-taught engineer.

- The Nostradamus of the digital age.

- He envisioned the internet.

- He could see where all of this was going.

(fire hisses) (quick ascending note) - This is a glimpse of a video landscape of tomorrow.

- The future that he was predicting was that every artist would be his own channel.

- Look where we are now with selfies.

(scraping noise) (classical violin music) - Like a superhighway, it is called, internet.

- The information superhighway.

- He had a different sense of purpose, different idea of what an artist's job might be.

(static hissing) (somber piano music) - [Narrator] History will repeat itself if we don't plan the future carefully.

- Television was the advanced technology in having influence on other people.

- We've had enough of that in the United States.

- [Narrator] I wanted to carve out a different path.

(base note dropping) - But he was too early.

- Looking in the rear view mirror, as usual.

- Being an artist in a medium that has no market is enough of an existential threat.

I mean, I don't know how he lived.

- He was afraid of having to return to Korea.

(dramatic piano note) - [Narrator] I'm fighting a war of persistence.

(shaker music) - Nam June was non-stop.

- What he was always interested is to bring cultures together.

- Shall we toast to the new year?

- We know the world through the colonial guise.

How would it be if we were capable of actually seeing the world from another point of view?

- Nam June was always transcending our vision of reality.

Opening up unbelievable possibilities.

(sharp whistling) (contemplative music) (distorted noise fading out)