Fluxus Film: Zen For Film (Nam June Paik, 1962-1964)

[ricochet188]

cramming for art history exam tomorrow morning, watching\analizing stupid ass "art" such as this makes me want to murder everything. Why don't people just draw pretty pictures anymore?

[loubaad]

@ricochet188 LMAAAAOOOOO ME 2

[ricochet188]

@loubaad Remember, bullshitting is key.

[MsPsycho29]

I get it: you understand what you want from it; film isn't real; reality is what we imagine; zen is meditation etc., and so on...

But really, this film is not that creative. Cage did this with 4'33; kids do this in kindergarden. Sorry, but its not profound.

We can intellectualize anything...

[K82mey]

im also a little bothered by the presentation format of this film, if only because you don't hear the projector, which I found to be a large part of my viewing experience.

[CANDOKNOWHOW]

ubu dot RULES!!! Nice to see someone recommending such a great site, glad I'm not the only one.. ; )

[parlezuml]

It drags a little towards the middle

[alex122ism]

non riesco a vedere i fotogrammi.

[TheFate23]

@alex122ism sei ironico? XD

[mogthemoogle160]

*cough*pretentious*cough*

[NFM1337]

ASS.

[123reinders]

4:33

[LosaLevim]

so it's nothing... a video about nothing. Brilliant

[leafsimon]

Wouldn't emptiness be blackness?

[zarhell]

@leafsimon are you sure? wouldnt be emptiness be whitness or greenish, ... emptiness must be colorfull, or not... blackness or colorless is still an image created by de vision, so is still something with somthing else in it.. emptiness would be everything and nothign at the same time

[leafsimon]

@zarhell

I guess it depends what you start with.

[mothman2]

danielvlee I am thinking of using your comments in a new comedy stand up routine such is there sheer daftness. By the way, what are you to do with yourself once you leave school?

[Endimione17]

this is a sublime statement of me-ontology... film as gift as film

[monoalcuadrado]

the artist wants to do nothing as so is the video.

[torrado82]

The artist want make a reflexion about tv manipulation. Tv like capitalism instrument.

[monoalcuadrado]

it's interesting there can be such more rationalization about a film that shows a white square during 8 minutes. All this kind of discussions are neither pointless nor relevant, basically because there is nothing to discuss about. There is only a white screen, an "empty" screen. Let's not discuss the term empty, because the term itself includes form and emptyness, movement and stillness, sound and silence...there is nothing.

[IsaacBickerstaffEsq]

". . .why 8 minutes!!!!!!?"

Because if you square 8 by watching it 8 times it is 64 minutes; and will you still need it when it is 64?

[danielvlee]

Why this is the least talented film ever created:

Life is the constant changing of perspective, which is why a film, or story arc, attempts to emulate some part of life. This is a film of a single, unchanging idea. There is a challenge to the viewer to change his or her perspective, but no such challenge to the auteur. He only commands us to come forth, but does not take us anywhere with him. Such an irony that a movement called fluxus could produce such an unmoving, static non-work.

[IsaacBickerstaffEsq]

This is a short, digitized video clip of the film, it is not the film itself. The film itself presents no ideas, changes subtly but constantly, thus allowing a multitude of ideas, in which the artist participates by going ALONG for the ride as part of the audience, discovering new ideas,rather than taking them someplace HE preconceived.

It was made, in part, in anticipation of your criticism; to repudiate it.

And you have now become co-opted into the film.

[danielvlee]

The only valid comment above is the last, that I have become part of the film. The sole way in which the film moves is in the discussion that it engenders. In that discussion, we can acccept the static premise of the film -- that anything can be art, even Nothing -- or we can reject such relativism.

Only by hating this film can we understand it.

[IsaacBickerstaffEsq]

As you continue to make the contra-factual bald assertion that the film is static very little of the above comment is valid.

I cannot accept the "static premise of the film" because the film does not have, nor is it in actuality, static.

You may test this yourself by remaking and showing the film.

Note: you will not be able to REPRODUCE the film. In fact, the original cannot even be reshown, because . . . it is not static.

[danielvlee]

I've just "tested it myself" again by pushing play. Thus began my "showing" of the film. Your assertion that the "film" can never be shown again is incorrect. It is the same film, regardless of whether it had been shown 10 seconds later than it had, or 45 years. The absolute relativism of your argument is intellectual self-stimulation. This so-called "film" is porn for nihilists.

[IsaacBickerstaffEsq]

"The absolute relativism of your argument . . ."

. . . does not exist. I am a physicist. The argument is empirical.

"This so-called "film" is porn for nihilists."

The so called "film" is not so called, it IS film. You, of course, did not "show" the film, because you do not even have access to it.

You are also funny. I don't know whether you are funny because you are clueless or because you are trolling. Either way makes rational discussion pointless however.

It's a fair cop.

[danielvlee]

Alas, none of us have ever seen a film, nor read a book, because, once tripped from the author's pen, or director's action cut -- POOF -- it is forever gone.

A boy has never wept nor dashed a thousand kim.

There is no point in time where a work is both choate and perceivable. Art is an imperceptible ephemeron. I shall call this theory: Bickerstaff's Uncertainty Principle.

You are now immortalised.

[danielvlee]

As much as I enjoy your pompous contrardictions posed as actual argument, I think I even more enjoy your appeal to expertise ("I am a physicist"), argumentum ad hominem ("clueless/ trolling"), and false choice conclusion ("Either way makes rational discussion pointless").

Please invoke Godwin's Law to complete to cycle. I yearn to be compared to Hitler by one such as yourself.

Now that's a fair cop!

[IsaacBickerstaffEsq]

Thanks for the laugh, it was  a good one.

[danielvlee]

You're welcome. I found it an enjoyable repartee, also.

[jellyelliebean]

I'm sorry everyone but we are being duped into thinking this is amazing. When avant garde is the cool thing, its not avant garde anymore. The aim of Fluxus was to create art that could reach the people, and that went against the seriousness of modern art, but now this type of art has become so maintsream, and going against it seen as so backward, that it has become exactly what it was striving against.

[IsaacBickerstaffEsq]

You are making the Post Modern argument of Rosenberg. Please note in the video title the date of showing. It would have been seen by the audience as a contrast to Leave it to Beaver.

The original is not a Post Modern work.

[alicanteh]

FUCKING SHIT

[juliehoyas]

beautiful

[LeImpressionAligator]

If you concentrate all the time, and watch closely, you can actualy read a writing in there....

[PistaxitoDePlaymobil]

No, you can't.

[Redstar309Z]

brilliant pure zen ..everything is nothing

[brekkafiore]

i dislike this opera but i think that paik was a genius! thank u for sharing!

[petaflot]

Me recuerda a los tres cuadros en blanco que inspiraron a John Cage en la obra 4:33. Para entender 'esto' hay que verlo dentro del movimiento fluxus, genios de nuestra era en la música, las letras, la pintura, etc: Steve Reich, Terry Riley, John Cage o el propio Nam June Paik, padre del video arte.

Es imposible para un niño apreciar los matices del buen vino...

Esto no tiene porque gustar, pero por favor, no es necesario compartir la inmadurez ni usar lenguaje soez en los comentarios.

[robertsen99]

04:51 ..best part!

[BaronessSapphire]

@robertsen99 ahahahaahahahahaa

[srlouart]

very minimalistc jej

[yiavvhs7]

..."white is not a color, but the manifestation of the presence of all color, the complete energy of light"... i find it very interesting and full of energy.

[stittdude]

Something is happening here, but I don't know what it is.

Sincerely,

Mr. Jones

[EnForwardslashAy]

the only problem is that the film won't deteriorate when played in youtube..... so it's fully preserved, not that i find myself not being able to get to sleep over the issue....

it's just odd this being documented in this format....

which is my way of saying "cheers"

(don't hurt me)

[chowkaideng]

For me, this is the best comment this film has received, and it represents a part of my own approach and feelings to this subject.

This is my way to say 'Thanks, I really appreciate that' :)

I'll like to recommend you to visit: ubu [dot] com

There's a lot of great works there.

Greetings!

[fanton2005]

I just saw this video on my machine and it's no different.

This is my way of saying "I agree with you two":)

I am not sure what should I think or say. I do not think there is anything to say or think. Its the experience of it. Concentrating on nothingness proves that the nothing is indeed something.

[trylonperisphere]

just putting it on youtube deteriorates it due to the lossy compression. now if someone copies it from here it'll deteriorate even more :)

[TruthExplorer77]

great

[Iquia86]

xD AI MI MADRE....

[sjofarthotellet]

thas nise

[TREMATREMA]

bla bla

[ROBOCOPOUT]

Malevitch; " White is nothing.Black is feeling.

[easypickup]

Brain masturbation. Malevitch done it one time, isn't it sufficient?

I'm tired of this crappy art.

[acteon00]

That was the same rauschenberg did and everybody copied... Cage did it too.

[subbasshead]

beautiful! truly the best film I have ever seen or heard on youtube!

[PyePye7]

Clean air, water, mind, space, spirit. The ultimate in luxury! The opposite site: Polluted TV channels of this World.

[hrstuks]

Shit, I got that idea first!

[pylgrym]

I know this is a pirated, second generation copy - probably Albanian.

[gomasigoma]

inconte that's fluxus, why the you spend to seconds to write about it? becuase something got you.....

[jmconte]

stupidity who would wast 8 fuckin minutes watching a white screen. quit with the pot you

[marcostormy]

this video...is.

[antimoviestar]

"blue" (by derek jarman) i like more:-)

[caroljbowie]

I love this video too

[prenchito]

I think too.

[barriejdavies]

barrie j davies loves this video