Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii

The large video artwork is composed of over 300 television sets, neon tubing, and 50 DVD players, which form a map of the United States.

Nam June Paik (1932–2006) was an artist born in South Korea who migrated to the United States in the 1960s, around the same time he began creating Fluxus works.

Due to space limitations in Paik's studio, the southern portions of Texas and Florida are tucked in at the bottom of the installation.

He interpreted it in Electronic Superhighway by the fast-moving video clips, a representation of people moving quickly past sights while traveling on the road.

in Oklahoma; cactus, cowgirls, and the Waco siege are among the images seen in Texas; Meet Me in St. Louis in Missouri; presidents including Jimmy Carter and Dwight D. Eisenhower quickly flicker in Iowa, representing the Iowa caucuses; composer John Cage in Massachusetts; musician Charlotte Moorman in Arkansas; choreographer Merce Cunningham in Washington; the Kentucky Derby in Kentucky; President Abraham Lincoln and rapid scenes of Chicago in Illinois; the Indianapolis 500 in Indiana; amateur sports in Colorado; the civil rights movement in Mississippi; 1972 presidential nominee Senator George McGovern in South Dakota; winter scenes in Alaska; and South Pacific in Hawaii.

[5][8] Chris Kilmeck wrote in the Washington Examiner that Electronic Superhighway was "fantastic" and a "sculptural tableau...[that] is an expression of Nam June's love for the U.S."[9] Philip Kennicott, art and architecture critic for The Washington Post, noted the installation is an "old favorite" and "essential icon" of the museum, but he has also said it is "corrupted" and lacks "wistfulness" compared to Paik's earlier works.

[10][11] According to former SAAM director Betsy Broun, Electronic Superhighway is a "reflection of everybody's experience all across the country...In some ways, we worry that contemporary art has gotten to be a conversation among a very small subset of Americans, but not this work.

She expressed her high opinion of the work to one of the SAAM's board of commissioners, Ken Hakuta, who happened to be Paik's nephew.

"[2] The entire thing had to be reassembled, including replacing the neon lighting, and buying the televisions and additional VHS players.

[13] In 2021, the SAAM began a renovation of its galleries displaying contemporary and post-1945 modern art, which included doubling the space for artworks and a reinterpretation of its collection.

Called "American Voices and Visions", the SAAM created a focus on works by women and people of color, who make up over half of the artists represented.

Electronic Superhighway is still one of the main features, along with other pieces the museum has displayed for years, including Nenuphar by Alexander Calder and For SAAM by Jenny Holzer.

[5][8] Roger Caitlin wrote in Smithsonian magazine "Electronic Superhighway also helps herd another new aspect of the floor: a state-of-the-art gallery dedicated to time-based media, which includes film, video, audio and digital technologies that unfold over time.