Keeping Video Art Alive With C.T. Lui
Special | 8m 24sVideo has Closed Captions
Engineer Chi-Tien Lui has restored most of Nam June Paik's video art over the years.
Electrical engineer and technician Chi-Tien Lui is one of the only living experts on cathode-ray tube (CRT) television technology, and he has been solely responsible for restoring most of Nam June Paik's video art over the years. As he nears retirement, Lui looks to pass his knowledge on to future generations.
Support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Blanche and Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Koo...
Keeping Video Art Alive With C.T. Lui
Special | 8m 24sVideo has Closed Captions
Electrical engineer and technician Chi-Tien Lui is one of the only living experts on cathode-ray tube (CRT) television technology, and he has been solely responsible for restoring most of Nam June Paik's video art over the years. As he nears retirement, Lui looks to pass his knowledge on to future generations.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- So my name is Raphaele Shirley and I've been working with C.T.
Lui since 2005.
My main role with C.T.
Lui is to interface with the museums and different Nam June Paik owners.
Our effort has been to try to stay as close as possible to the original for the fact that, now, there's this obsolescence of the CRTs.
So that's really a challenge.
And we've done a lot of research to try to figure out which technology would be the best for maintaining the authenticity, the originality, the voice of Nam June.
So I have here an original CRT that was part of this prototype that you see behind me.
And this is a project we did just recently with the Detroit Institute of Art.
And we've extracted all the CRTs from the originals and replaced these original displays with this more new technology, which is an LCD screen.
And so this consumes a lot less electricity, produces a lot less heat, and from what our understanding and a lot of discussions with the manufacturers, has a longer lifespan than the vintage CRTs.
(electronic music continues) - Sometimes this big capacitor, contains high voltage for a long time so you make sure to discharge it again, not to get the electric shock.
(metal clicks) (electronic music continues) - [Raphaele] C.T.
Lui feels ready to pass on his knowledge, and so we've started training Taezoo so that we can feel prepared for future requests.
- Gradually, I'm gonna learn this technology then maybe I have a chance to, yeah helping to make Nam June Paik's artwork alive.
If I'm become those kind of succession, must be such an honor.
Without know this kind of history, we can lose lots of capability.
We might find more way to use this technology.
So not just the learning the history of the technology, but its real story make a young generation, like me, and younger generation might, yeah, got lots of inspiration from his story.
(electronic music continues)
Support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Blanche and Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Koo...