VIDEO COMMUNE (BEATLES FROM BEGINNING TO END) (TV)
Summary
An experiment for television by Nam June Paik. The program opens as a narrator tells the viewer, "Please do your own thing and treat [the program] like an electronic wallpaper or like a light show. It has no beginning, no end." The program goes back and forth between two types of imagery: video footage enhanced by the Paik-Abe videosynthesizer and segments from a Japanese television station that feature performances of Japanese hit songs. The videosynthesized imagery is psychedelic, with morphing shapes, patterns, objects, and human figures that continuously change. Beatles songs play in the background of these sections. At random intervals, the psychedelic footage is interrupted by Japanese television programming, and the two kinds of imagery keep alternating. At one point, the voice returns and encourages viewers to adjust the color, brightness, and tint controls on their televisions.
(This program contains minor technical problems. The program ends abruptly. This represents the best copy of this program currently available to the Museum.)
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 2000.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS WGBH Boston, MA
- DATE: August 1, 1970
- RUNNING TIME: 1:34:30
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:11645
- GENRE: Video art
- SUBJECT HEADING: Video art; Music; Asian American Pacific Islanders Collection
- SERIES RUN: WGBH (Boston, MA) - TV, 1970
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Nam June Paik … Producer, Director
- Russell Connor … Production (Misc.), Collaborator
- John Folsom … Production (Misc.), Collaborator
- Jack Gill … Production (Misc.), Collaborator
- Nat Johnson … Production (Misc.), Collaborator
- Charles Norton … Production (Misc.), Collaborator
- David Silver … Production (Misc.), Collaborator
- Talbert, Anne (audio i.d. only) … Production (Misc.), Collaborator
- The Beatles