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Nam June Paik «Robot K-456»
Nam June Paik, «Robot K-456», 1965
Photograph: Hanns Sohm | © Nam June Paik


 Nam June Paik
«Robot K-456»

Nam June Paik here deploys his new 'Robot K-456', history's first non-human action artist. About the robot, which he built in Japan, Paik wrote: 'It was more difficult and more expensive than my Wuppertal show', by which he meant 'Exposition of Music – Electronic Television', the exhibition likewise staged in the 'Galerie Parnass' in 1963. The robot was purpose-built for street actions, in which it was supposed to mingle – more or less inconspicuously – with bypassers, as Paik recounts: 'I imagined it would meet people on the street and give them a split-second surprise. Like a sudden shower.'