Nam June Paik
«Simple»

Karlheinz Stockhausen invited Paik to make a 7-minute appearance in the performances of his piece 'Originale' ('Originals'), which was first presented in Cologne on 26 October 1961. Paik varied his music action from performance to performance, but 'Simple' and 'Zen for Head' were basic elements which Paik later presented outside the scope of 'Originale', for instance in 1962 at the festival 'Fluxus Festspiele neuester Musik', Wiesbaden (photo).
Paik's instructions for 'Simple' read: '1. throw peas into auditorium, 2. smear shaving cream on body, 3. put rice in the shaving cream, 4. slowly unwind a roll of paper, 5. go into a pool of water, 6. come back and play some piano with baby's dummy in mouth.' Stockhausen recalled the additional deployment of tapes with Paik's 'typical acoustic montage of women's screams, radio news broadcasts, noises made by children, scraps of classical music, electronic sounds'.