Nam June's Spirit was Speaking to Me

In 2010, the artist and composer Aki Onda was in Seoul for a series of performances at the Nam June Paik Art Center. One night, in his hotel room, he was scanning through the channels on a handheld radio when he heard a “submerged voice” in the electronic pulses and static noises and concluded that this was the spirit of the dead artist reaching out to him. Over the coming years he continued to channel Nam June Paik’s spirit through the same radio, documenting these “séances” on its tape recorder and presenting them with only minimal edits.

Onda has described the recordings as a way for him to explore the potential of radio—“a medium which is full of mysteries.” It could be that he is capturing “secret broadcasts” from anonymous stations that exist around the world, or encrypted messages intended for military or espionage purposes. Or perhaps it really is Paik, whose own work during his lifetime was so influenced by shamanic traditions. Whatever the listener decides, this work records the connection between a living artist and a visionary forebear with whom he feels a great affinity.