Grant to Fund Restoration of Stuart Collection Artwork by ‘Grandfather of Video Art’
If you’ve ever wondered about the old television sets scattered around the lawn in front of the Media Center/Communication Building, wonder no more. The TV graveyard – along with a reproduction of Rodin’s famous “Thinker” and several small statues of Buddha gazing into the empty monitors – is the exterior portion of “Something Pacific” by Nam June Paik (1932-2006). Commissioned as part of the university’s renowned Stuart Collection of public art, “Something Pacific” was in 1986 Paik’s first permanent outdoor installation. The indoor portion is in the building lobby: a bank of 24 cutting edge and interactive TVs – except that they are no longer interactive or cutting-edge. A recent grant from the National Endowment of the Arts will change that.