THE GLASS PASSENGER

IN THE SPECTACLE WORLD

Nam June Paik / Charlotte Moorman TV Bra
for Living Sculpture (1969)
Brassiere for Living Sculpture (Charlotte Moorman) is one sharp example to humanize electronics
and technology. By using TV as bra the most intimate belonging of human being, we will demon-
strate the human use of technology, and also stimulate viewers, NOT for something mean, by stimu-
late their phantasy [sic] to look for the new, imaginative, and humanistic ways of using our technol-
ogy. Nam June Paik, 1969
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The piece consists of a pair of three-inch television screens mounted in plexiglass cubes which
are strapped over the breasts of the cellist. The televisions display oscillations created from sig-
nals from a pickup on the cello. This shows direct relationship and impact between the Human
and the Technology, which is the major key to his point on Humanizing Technology.
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Before I read into the details of his performance, I was thinking this is another piece that embod-
ies female sexuality and desire as the performance piece. Well, perhaps, one of the best way to
capture attention and input strong impression on people is to use the female body as the pro-
tagonist and this may be the Paiks intention too.
As I research, I realize his true intention and truly admire his vision of the use of technology in
future.
Although TV today has somewhat been replace by computers, however, it is still something that
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is not detachable from every households. TV Bra for Living Sculpture is one of Paiks !rst experi-
ments that embodied his foresight towards the rapid progress of technology. I think by distort-
ing the already accomplished image of television, and transforming it to an intimate object, the
womens bra, he succeeded to attract viewers attention to present a television as an object of
contemplation.
As an artist, I believe it is important for us to deliver our own vision of what the future will be-
come in order for people to anticipate the future positive (or even negative) possibilities.
This entry was posted in Research and tagged Analysis, Num June Piak, Performance on Febru-
ary 4, 2014 [http://oss2014.adm.ntu.edu.sg/chinfang/2014/02/04/nam-june-paik-charlotte-moor-
man-tv-bra-for-living-sculpture-1969/] .
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