The term "phiber optik" is derived from fiber optics, a branch of physics that deals with "thin transparent fibers of glass or plastic that are enclosed by material of a lower index of refraction and that transmit light throughout their length by internal reflections." (1) These fibers are flexible and can be bent around corners to conduct light and images, and are used in information and communications technologies. Phiber Optik is an ominous vision, a stationary motorcycle rider alive with digital activity, a visual representation of the attitude and antics of one of the first teenage on-line hackers, Mark Abene. Paik's work is an attempt to objectify a unique immaterial culture developed in an electronic environment on the Internet. The title, Phiber Optik, is very important to understanding this piece. Paik constructs new forms out of the cast-offs of technology, forms that are not beautiful, that do not predict a perfect future through technology, but forms that challenge that utopian ideal, forms that say, "This is the way things are." Today, computers only a few years old are junked, considered out of date and unusable. Paik's Phiber Optik, on the other hand, is shaped by a perhaps more realistic, retrospective view of technology. Trova's work was done before computers and technology became so prosaic in our culture, and the Disney-esque idealism of that era shows in the minimalist, smooth, shining, and polished surfaces. Although the visual characteristics are dissimilar, Trova and Paik both address issues of technology, and incorporate man and machine as a hybrid being. Yet, the patchwork blending of motorcycle parts, antique cabinet, and electronic equipment, emphasized by the collage of motor-highway bumperstickers, effects a makeshift, somewhat precarious feeling of instability, a feeling that at any moment the whole structure could fall apart, disassembling into a heap of junk-yard motorcycle parts, dead electronic circuits, and vacant television screens.Ĭonceptually, this work could be compared with Ernest Trova's sculpture Falling Man (1966). It's size alone creates a presence not easily ignored. The "life-force" of this entity emanates in the form of electronic imagery flowing from the six television screens which constitute it's "body." The image of this electronic rider is at once alarming and enigmatic. It summons visions of stealth and furtiveness, as well as the mystical, the enigmatic, the abstract, the secret, the hidden, the surreptitious, the unauthorized, the illegal, and the prohibited. Why did Paik choose to create a dark image illuminated only by the flickering digital imagery of television screens? "Dark" is a loaded word. Until one looks beyond the surface to the intent, Phiber Optik almost comes across as humorous.
The first impression of Phiber Optik is one of a huge, dark robot-like motorcycle being that is not rider and machine, but a unified entity. Paik is an artist attempting to develop a language that creates a bridge from our object-oriented world to an illusory and transitory electronic domain which is becoming increasingly more prevalent in our global culture. The sculptural work stands about seven feet high and was one of thirty works in his monumental installation at the San Jose Museum of Art (Spring 96) which he calls Cybertown. The above list constitutes the components of Nam June Paik's work entitled, Phiber Optik.
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