Nam June Paik realized his idea of the “electronic superhighway” by adapting the Rosetta Stone that was discovered in the village of Rosetta by Napoleon’s army during his campaign in Egypt. The inscription on the Rosetta Stone was a decree issued by the Ptolemaic Dynasty in three languages: ancient Egyptian in both its hieroglyphic and demotic script forms, and ancient Greek. Key to the Highway (Rosetta Stone) is composed of the following: the upper part shows a video drawing, the middle part displays a description of Paik’s artistic career in many languages, and the lower section illustrates images excerpted from Paik’s video works. The middle section especially demonstrates how Paik participated in the Fluxus art movement and the relationship with artists who had inspired him and vise versa, in Korean, English, French, German, and Japanese; ¬a great epitome of how and in what direction Paik’s art had developed.
