2015.48.113 Music Box Based on Piano Piece Composed in Tokyo in 1954


GENERAL DESCRIPTION  
In 1994, Nam June Paik created Music Box Based on Piano Piece Composed in Tokyo in 1954 for The Music Box Project, a commission of seventeen music boxes from different contemporary artists sponsored by the Swiss music box company Reuge. Paik, who was instrumental in establishing the video art genre, transposed an original score composed forty years earlier onto a Reuge 144-note music box mechanism. Inside the cabinet, a mini video recorder records a live feed of the music box, which is presented on the screen. By interlacing a contemporary audio-visual recording, a 200-year-old musical instrument, and a vintage television cabinet, Paik comments on temporality and the eventual obsoleteness of contemporary technology.
 
Adapted from
  • Label text, 2015.
  • Label text, Center for Creative Connections, "The Art of Communication," 2017. 

NOTES

Catalogue essays

Artist/designers
Paik_Nam June: AAT: 500118744

Cultures

Geography 

Process/materials
television sets: AAT: 300248636

Historical periods

Individuals

Subject terms
communication (function): AAT: 300137794
television (telecommunications system): AAT: 300249920
music boxes: AAT: 300042659
time-based works: AAT: 300185191
video art: AAT: 300102067

RELATED OBJECTS 

PROVENANCE 
By 1994: Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati [1] 

1994: Dorace M. Fichtenbaum (1929-2015), purchased from above

2015: Dallas Museum of Art, bequest of Dorace M. Fichtenbaum

The main source for this provenance is information previously entered in TMS. Supporting documentation is noted. 

[1] See letter from Michael E. Solway of Carl Solway Gallery to Dorace Fichtenbaum, dated April 20, 1994, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records object file. 

AUDIO ASSETS 
The Fichtenbaum Collection: Talk by Olivier Meslay, 267149968: UMO

VIDEO ASSETS

IMAGE ASSETS

WEB RESOURCES 

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 2015.48.113

Category
rules_operator
AND
General Description
 
In 1994, Nam June Paik created Music Box Based on Piano Piece Composed in Tokyo in 1954 for The Music Box Project, a commission of seventeen music boxes from different contemporary artists sponsored by the Swiss music box company Reuge. Paik, who was instrumental in establishing the video art genre, transposed an original score composed forty years earlier onto a Reuge 144-note music box mechanism. Inside the cabinet, a mini video recorder records a live feed of the music box, which is presented on the screen. By interlacing a contemporary audio-visual recording, a 200-year-old musical instrument, and a vintage television cabinet, Paik comments on temporality and the eventual obsoleteness of contemporary technology.
 
Adapted from
  • Label text, 2015.
  • Label text, Center for Creative Connections, "The Art of Communication," 2017. 

Fun Facts

Archival Resources

Web Resources
 

Notes

Catalogue essays

Artist/designers
Paik_Nam June: AAT: 500118744

Cultures

Geography 

Process/materials
television sets: AAT: 300248636

Historical periods

Individuals

Subject terms
communication (function): AAT: 300137794
television (telecommunications system): AAT: 300249920
music boxes: AAT: 300042659
time-based works: AAT: 300185191
video art: AAT: 300102067

RELATED OBJECTS 

PROVENANCE 
By 1994: Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati [1] 

1994: Dorace M. Fichtenbaum (1929-2015), purchased from above

2015: Dallas Museum of Art, bequest of Dorace M. Fichtenbaum

The main source for this provenance is information previously entered in TMS. Supporting documentation is noted. 

[1] See letter from Michael E. Solway of Carl Solway Gallery to Dorace Fichtenbaum, dated April 20, 1994, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records object file. 

AUDIO ASSETS 
The Fichtenbaum Collection: Talk by Olivier Meslay, 267149968: UMO

VIDEO ASSETS

rules
Apply To
Objects
number
Equals
2015.48.113
tags
#draft
#completed
%copyedited_Gail
%Archived
*Contemporary Art
@Courtney
video art: AAT: 300102067
#routed
time-based works: AAT: 300185191
music (discipline): AAT: 300054146
communication (function): AAT: 300137794
time: AAT: 300133089
mechanical properties: AAT: 300056192
assemblages (sculpture): AAT: 300047194
television sets: AAT: 300248636
television (telecommunications system): AAT: 300249920
Paik_Nam June: AAT: 500118744
music boxes: AAT: 300042659
obsolescence: AAT: 300404908
267149968: UMO
source file
object_notes_2_d-0265.xml.nores