Notation and Eternity in Symphonie No. 5 and Liberation Sonata for Fish

Paik’s Liberation Sonata for Fish (1969) is a prime example of the score-based work that Paik created after he moved from Germany to New York. The work’s absurdity lies in the proposition of freeing a dead fish by releasing it into its natural element—an act that acquires a dramatic overtone in an age marked by the mass extinction of species. Is what I am seeing evidence of an unfulfilled liberation? Who is doing the liberating and who is in need of liberation? Or is archival preservation a tacit metaphor for the “liberation” of the fish, which became a disintegrated specimen enclosed in the archival folds of a highly controlled habitat, both environmentally and institutionally? In this essay, I weave conservation concerns together with reflection on the work's rich history.