Missa of Zen (1967)

In Missa of Zen a TV screen filmed from an extremely oblique angle appears as a ghostly flickering sliver at the side of a darkened frame The images playing across its surface are rendered abstract by the perspective we witness the transmission of information but at a great distance Isolated in silence and darkness the television set slips into the realm of the unheimlich an uncanny object at once familiar and unfamiliar Situating mediated America at the crossroads of missa Latin for the Christian mass and Zen Buddhism Paik highlights the connections between mass culture and the transcendental