“A Heart Stopped in 20th‑Century New York, Awakened in 21st‑Century Korea” — AI Robot Opera Honors Nam June Paik on 20th Anniversary
Creatrip Team
a month ago
At the Nam June Paik Art Center on Jan. 28–29, artists staged an ‘AI Robot Opera’ to mark the 20th anniversary of the pioneering video artist Nam June Paik’s death. The centerpiece was the restored robot K-456—originally made by Paik in 1960s New York—brought back to life in 권병준’s (Kwon Byung‑jun) performance ‘Ghost Troupe x Robot K‑456: Rewiring the Circuit.’ The show began with a slow, deliberate repair scene and emphasized ‘intentional imperfection’: robots stumble, fail, and are repaired onstage, turning malfunction into narrative. One striking moment showed K‑456 performing an obeisance-like prostration (o-che‑tu‑ji) and later dropping coffee beans among the audience, a playful echo of Paik’s earlier street performances that questioned technology, agency, and ‘death.’ AI co‑created the music, positioning machines as collaborators rather than mere tools. Curator Park Nam‑hee said reviving K‑456 is not just restoration but reopening Paik’s questions for today’s technological era: what do we become as machines advance, and what human values must we keep? The evening also featured Kim Eun‑joon’s musical piece ‘Sequential,’ amplifying robots’ vulnerability and inviting reflection on slowness, failure, and coexistence rather than techno‑utopian perfection.
