"Paik's virtual archive contemplates the identity of multimedia artworks by reconsidering the role of conservation in our understanding of what the artwork is and how it functions within and beyond a specific historical moment. Using examples by Nam June Paik (1932-2006), the hugely influential Korean American artist who is considered the progenitor of video art, the book explores the relation between the artworks' concept and material, theories of musical performance, performativity, and the Bergsonian concept of duration and the parts they play in the conceptualization of multimedia artworks. Hölling combines her astute assessment of artistic technologies with ideas from art theory, philosophy, and aesthetics to probe questions related to materials and materiality not just in the work on Paik, but in contemporary art in general. Ultimately, she proposes that it is on the basis of the archive--the physical and virtual realm that encompass all that is known about an artwork--that the identity and continuity of such artworks are created and sustained." -- Provided by publisher.