The nod to Zen Buddhism is signposted throughout the exhibition, by way of seated Buddhas either collected or sketched by Paik, and of course the quintessential Paik work that sums up the dialogue between ‘East’ and ‘West’, ‘spirituality’ and ‘modernity’: “TV Buddha” (1974). It is also present, in a lesser-known gem of a work titled “Zen for Film” (1964), Paik’s homage to John Cage’s groundbreaking “4’ 33”” (1952). Cage’s composition directs performers not to play their musical instruments for the entire duration of the piece, and the work is comprised entirely of silence and / or ambient sounds, challenging conventions of music and performance. Paik translated this score into a blank film projection on a wall: in “Zen For Film”, there is nothing to see except for a rectangular patch of projected light in a 4:3 format, flickering and grainy, with the occasional silhouette of a gallery-goer animating the piece. As with Cage’s work, ambient sounds and sights – or what would normally be regarded as disruptions or incidental noise – become part of the work, which is realized differently in every iteration. “Zen For Film” also recalls “Candle TV” introduced at the start of the exhibition, suggesting a similar state of ‘blank’ staring at a glowing screen. While some may read into this work a certain iconoclasm or an ‘aesthetics of boredom’, “Zen For Film” also evokes the Buddhist concept of sunyata, or emptiness. Created several decades ago, this work’s ideas are still fresh even till today, in its challenge to conventions of the medium, and in playing up the medium’s materiality and exhibitionary context. Fortuitously for audiences in Singapore, the exhibition Orchestral Manoeuvres at the Art Science Museum [2] presents a number of sound works by artists responding to John Cage’s ideas as Paik did, as well as contemporary artists questioning the conventions of medium and how it may be ‘performed’ or subverted in the way that Paik questioned the film medium [3].