Why was it none other than George Orwell among many artists who reflected on the future society, that Nam June Paik invited in by offering a greeting? Starting from this question, the first event of Paik-Orwell Club: Warez Academy features a lecture by political scientist Se-hoon Ko, who will talk about his book George Orwell, an Intellectual. From a perspective of political economy Ko made an elaborate analysis of primary materials written by Orwell, and as suggested by the subtitle, this book also takes the stance of the humanities, retracing Orwell’s life and thought embodied in his writings. Instead of great ideologies, Orwell believed in the values of freedom and communication of a multitude of ordinary people and the moral power to realize these. In this respect, Orwell’s works draw interesting parallels with the works of Paik who set up a distinct framework of thinking and doing by his artistic achievements. Ko’s lecture will deal with Orwell, a literary and journalistic person, through which we can shed new light on Paik, the ‘political’ artist, who never ceased to cast an acute glance at and to make an incisive comment on different relations of the world. On the artistic soil that the two artists cultivated, we can continue to take over Paik’s challenge to or dialogue with Orwell.
※ This event will be conducted in Korean only.

Se-Hoon Ko studied economics in Yonsei University and politics in the graduate school of Seoul National University, and obtained a Ph.D. in political science from the Ohio State University, with a thesis on the politics of the British Labor Party. He has been a professor in Korea University since 1989. His research interests are British politics, welfare states, and social democracy, particularly in the Victorian Age and interwar period of the UK. He published George Orwell, an Intellectual (Hangilsa, pp.632) in 2012.