[Air-L] Call for Chapters: Electronic Shaman: Nam June Paik, Shamanism, and Emerging Media

[Joonseong Lee]

Call for Chapters: Electronic Shaman: Nam June Paik, Shamanism, and
Emerging Media



On July 20, 1990, Korean-born video artist Nam June Paik (NJP) held a
shamanic ritual in Seoul, Korea, commemorating his close friend Joseph
Beuys, a German-born avant-garde artist.  The performance was titled *Nam
June Paik + Shaman Exorcism Rite + Joseph Beuys’ Memorial Service *(Jans,
2018). Through the ritual, Paik became a “medium,” a shaman “who connects
the past with the future through reincarnating spirits and mourning for the
other” (Cheon, 2009, p. 234). On January 29, 2007, a year after NJP’s
passing, Kim Keum-Hwa, the renowned national shaman of the time, performed
a shamanic memorial ritual for Paik in Seoul and resurrected him in spirit
(Cheon, 2009, pp. 270-278).



According to the memoir of Shigeko Kubota, NJP’s life partner, NJP took
considerable pride in Korea’s cultural heritage of shamanism. NJP’s view on
shamanism was more than performing or participating in shamanic rituals. He
believed the core of Korean shamanism to be communication, so shamans
should facilitate communication between/among or through beings. For him,
Korean shamanism was the beginning of the world, as it allows humans to
communicate with Heaven (or God). NJP’s emphasis on “an information-age
realization that what is made is less important than how it is received”
(Zinman, 2019, p. 82) makes clear how his works and vision are based on his
belief in shamanism as communication.


There are numerous publications on NJP’s life and works, but only a few in
English on NJP’s video art works and shamanism, which is an important
aspect of NJP’s oeuvre. Mina Cheon (2009), Young-Cheol Lee (2012), Wook
Steven Heo (2018), and Mi-Jung Kang (2019) are among the authors with
published work on these themes. Jung-Jin Park’s work (2010), although
written in Korean, provides valuable and thorough insights into NJP’s world
from the perspective of Eastern philosophy.



The edited volume Electronic Shaman: Nam June Paik, Shamanism, and Emerging
Media will focus on various interrelationships among NJP’s works and
shamanism in emerging media contexts. The volume also attempts to
illuminate NJP’s works in relation to dark shamanism and neoliberalism.
Potential topics and themes might include but are not limited to the
following:


*Topics/Themes*



   - NJP’s works, shamanism, new materialism
   - NJP’s works, shamanism, Internet of Living Things (IoLT)
   - NJP’s works, shamanism, electromagnetic spectrum
   - NJP’s works, shamanism, social media
   - NJP’s works, shamanism, Artificial Intelligence (AI)
   - NJP’s works, dark shamanism
   - NJP’s works, (dark) shamanism, neoliberalism


Please email abstracts of approximately 500 words to Joonseong Lee
jlee at csusm.edu as a Word document by Sept. 15, 2024.  In your abstract,
please be sure to include a short bio for all authors of no more than 200
words.



*Timeline*



Sept. 15, 2024 - Chapter proposals (abstracts) due

Oct. 1, 2024 - Decisions announced

Mar. 1, 2025 - Full chapter draft due (expected full chapter length
6,000—8,000 words)


*References*



Cheon , Mina.  Shamanism + Cyberspace. NY: Atropos press, 2009.

Heo, Wook Steven. “The Influence of Shamanism on Nam June Paik's Video
Art.” Moving Image Technology Studies, vol. 28, 2018, pp. 95-113.

Jans , Rachel. “Nam June Paik: Kinship, Collaboration, and Commemoration.”
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Aug. 2018,
https://www.sfmoma.org/essay/nam-june-paik/ . Accessed July 7 2024.

Kang, Mi-Jung. “The Sound of Shamans in the Works of Nam June Paik and
Early Korean Video Artists.” ScienceOpen.com, Aug. 2019,
https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.18.
Accessed July 7 2024.

Lee , Young-Cheol. “The Founder of Video Art Nam Jun Paik and Shamanism.” TK-21
La Revue, 2012,
https://www.tk-21.com/TK-21-LA-REVUE-No15-24?lang=fr#The-Founder-of-Video-Art-Nam-Jun.
Accessed July 7 2024.

Park, Jung-jin. Reading Nam June Park’s Video Art by Kut: from
Neo-shamanism to Eco-feminism, Seoul: Koreanstudies Information Service
(KIS) (in Korean), 2010.

Zinman, Gregory. "This Script is Not Final, and is Subject to Changes: Nam
June Paik between Page and Screen." We Are in Open Circuits: Writings by
Nam June Paik, edited by Hanhardt, John G, et al, The MIT Press, 2019, pp.
73-85.



Joonseong Lee, Ph.D.

Professor of Communication Department

SBSB 2128

California State University

San Marcos, CA 92096-001

Email: jlee at csusm.edu

Office ph: 760.750.4134

https://www.csusm.edu/profiles/index.html?u=jlee