“In a traditional concert, sounds move and the audience remains seated”
In “Symphony for 20 rooms”,
The sounds move, the audience also moves.
In my “Omnibus music No.1 (1961),
sounds sit down, the audience visits them.
In “Exposition of Music,
sounds sit, the audience plays with or attacks them.
In “Moving theatre’ in the street,
sounds move in the street and the audience encounters them “unexpectedly” in the street.
– From Nam June Paik’s “New ontology of music” –

Over Music is an experimental music festival exploring a notion of the “ontology of music” that breaks the boundaries between sound performances and the audience. The program is an extension of the exploration of avant-garde music practiced by Nam June Paik and shared with John Cage and Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, as well as a reinterpretation of Nam June Paik as a composer who mixed performance and music.

Nam June Paik’s performances and happenings blurred the boundaries between musician, composer and audience thus transcending traditional art and sound practices to offer a ‘surprise’ experience. Over Music focuses on Nam June Paik’s new approach to arts and sound as well as role in Fluxus music. The program is not simply a celebration of Nam June Paik’s pioneering interest in experimental sound art. In addition it will aim to further develop accompanying theoretical events along with performances based on thorough research of Nam June Paik, music history and theory.

For the next few months, the Nam June Paik Art Center will organize lectures and performances focusing on Nam June Paik’s relation to Fluxus music and experimental new music. In August, Myungwoo Noh (professor at Ajou University) will give a lecture on Theodor W. Adorno.

Noh will also address Schoenberg’s influence on new music in Germany in the 1960s. In addition, photos and Peter Moore’s film of the Originale performances carried out by avant-garde musicians 1961 and 1964 will be shown to complement an understanding of new music at that time.

3:00 Screening – Stockhausen’s Originale : Doubletakes Peter Moore / images from the show in Germany and New York.
4:00 Lecture – Analysis of Arnold Schoenberg by Theodor W. Adorno and New Music / Myungwoo Noh
5:00 Q&A