Post-Internet is a 21st century
art movement
An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defin ...
involving works that are derived from the Internet or its effects on aesthetics, culture and society.
Definition
Post-Internet is a loosely-defined term
that was coined by artist/curator
Marisa Olson in an attempt to describe her practice.
It emerged from mid-2000s discussions about
Internet art
upright=1.3, "Simple Net Art Diagram", a 1997 work by Michael Sarff and Tim Whidden
Internet art (also known as net art) is a form of new media art distributed via the Internet. This form of art circumvents the traditional dominance of the phys ...
by Gene McHugh (author of a blog titled "Post-Internet"), and
Artie Vierkant (artist, and creator of ''Image Object'' sculpture series).
The movement itself grew out of Internet Art (or Net Art).
According to the
UCCA Center for Contemporary Art
UCCA Center for Contemporary Art or UCCA () is a leading Chinese independent institution of contemporary art. Founded in 2007. Located at the heart of the 798 Art District in, China, it welcomes more than one million visitors a year. Originally k ...
, rather than referring "to a time “after” the
internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
", the term refers to "an internet state of mind".
The term is controversial and the subject of much criticism in the art community.
Art in America
''Art in America'' is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world in the United States, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It i ...
s Brian Droitcour opined that the term fails to describe the form of the works, instead "alluding only to a hazy contemporary condition and the idea of art being made in the context of digital technology." According to a 2015 article in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', the term describes "the practices of artists
hose
A hose is a flexible hollow tube designed to carry fluids from one location to another. Hoses are also sometimes called ''pipes'' (the word ''pipe'' usually refers to a rigid tube, whereas a hose is usually a flexible one), or more generally '' ...
artworks move fluidly between spaces, appearing sometimes on a screen, other times in a gallery."
''Fast Company''s Carey Dunne summarizes they are "artists who are inspired by the visual cacophony of the web" and notes that "mediums from
Second Life
''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fra ...
portraits to digital paintings on silk to 3-D-printed sculpture" are used.
There is theoretical overlap with
James Bridle
James Bridle (born 1980) is an artist, writer and publisher based in London. Bridle coined the New Aesthetic; their work "deals with the ways in which the digital, networked world reaches into the physical, offline one." Their work has explore ...
's term
New Aesthetic
The New Aesthetic is a term, coined by James Bridle, used to refer to the increasing appearance of the visual language of digital technology and the Internet in the physical world, and the blending of virtual and physical. The phenomenon has been ...
.
Ian Wallace writes that "the influential blog The New Aesthetic, run since May 2011 by writer and artist James Bridle, is a pioneering institution in the post-Internet movement" and concludes that "much of the energy around the New Aesthetic seems, now, to have filtered over into the "post-Internet" conversation."
Post-Internet art is also discussed by
Katja Novitskova as being a part of 'New Materialism'.
Ian Wallace of ''
Artspace Artspace may refer to:
* Artspace (website), an online marketplace based in New York City
* Artspace, New Haven, an art gallery in downtown New Haven, Connecticut
* Artspace Mackay, Mackay, Queensland, Australia
* Artspace NZ, a visual arts cent ...
'' considers the Post-Internet term to stand for "a
new aesthetic
The New Aesthetic is a term, coined by James Bridle, used to refer to the increasing appearance of the visual language of digital technology and the Internet in the physical world, and the blending of virtual and physical. The phenomenon has been ...
era," moving "beyond making work dependent on the novelty of the Web to using its tools to tackle other subjects". He notes that the post-Internet generation "frequently uses digital strategies to create objects that exist in the real world."
Or as Louis Doulas writes in ''Within Post-Internet, Part One'' (2011): "There is a difference then, in an art that chooses to exist outside of a browser window and an art that chooses to stay within it."
Influence
The movement spearheaded
microgenre
A microgenre is a specialized or niche genre. The term has been used since at least the 1970s to describe highly specific subgenres of music, literature, film, and art. In music, examples include the myriad sub-subgenres of heavy metal and electr ...
s and
subculture
A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...
s such as
seapunk
Seapunk is a subculture that originated on Tumblr in 2011. It is associated with an aquatic-themed style of fashion, 3D net art, iconography, and allusions to popular culture of the 1990s. The advent of seapunk also spawned its own electronic mu ...
and
vaporwave
Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, visual art style, and Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, elevator music, elevator, contemporary ...
.
In the early 2010s, "post-Internet" was popularly associated with the musician
Grimes
Claire Elise Boucher (; born March 17, 1988), known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her early work has been described as extending from "lo-fi R&B" to futuristic dance-pop, and has in ...
. Grimes used the term to describe her work at a time when post-Internet concepts were not typically discussed in mainstream music arenas. Amarco referred to
Yung Lean Yung may refer to:
* Yung (surname), Chinese surname
* Yung Joc, (born Jasiel Robinson in 1983), an American rapper
* Yung Wun, (born James Carlton Anderson in 1982), an American rapper
* Yung Berg, (born Christian Ward in 1985), an American rapper
...
as "by and large a product of the internet and a leading example of a generation of youths who garner fame through social media."
Exhibitions
There have been a number of significant group shows explicitly exploring Post-Internet themes. There was a 2014 exhibition called ''Art Post-Internet'' at Beijing's Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, which "set out to encapsulate the budding movement."
MoMa
Moma may refer to:
People
* Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist
* Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician
* Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher
Places
; Ang ...
curated ''Ocean of Images'' (2015)'','' a show "probing the effects of an image-based post-Internet reality." The 2016 9th
Berlin Biennale
The Berlin Biennale (full name: Berlin Biennale für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art) is a contemporary art exhibition, which has been held at various locations in Berlin, Germany, every two to three years since 1998. T ...
, titled ''The Present in Drag'', curated by the art collective
DIS, is described as a Post-Internet exhibition.
Other examples include:
* ''Raster Raster'', Aran Cravey Gallery, Los Angeles, 2014
*''2015 Triennial: Surround Audience'' at
New Museum
The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
History
The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sc ...
, New York, 2015
* ''Zero Zero'', Annka Kulty Gallery, London, 2016
Notable artists
*
Cory Arcangel
Cory Arcangel (born May 25, 1978) is an American post-conceptual artist who makes work in many different media, including drawing, music, video, performance art, and video game modifications, for which he is best known.
Arcangel often uses the ...
*
Petra Cortright
Petra Cortright (born 1986) is an American artist working in video, painting, and digital media.
Biography
Petra Cortright was born in 1986 in Santa Barbara, California. Cortright is the daughter of two artists; her father who died when she wa ...
,
whose work includes YouTube video work and digital paintings. She was included in "Raster Raster"
and the 9th Berlin Biennale
*
DIS
*
Parker Ito
*
Rachel de Joode
*
Katja Novitskova whose work focuses on issues of technology, evolutionary processes, digital imagery and corporate aesthetics and was included in the 9th Berlin Biennale
*
Seth Price
Seth Price (born 1973 in Palestine) is a New York City-based multi-disciplinary post-conceptual artist. He lives and works in New York City.
Early life
Price was born in the village of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, Palestine in 1973. His p ...
*
Jon Rafman
Jon Rafman (born 1981) is a Canadian artist, filmmaker, and essayist. His work centers around the emotional, social and existential impact of technology on contemporary life. His artwork has gained international attention and was exhibited in 2015 ...
, whose work was included in the 9th Berlin Biennale
*
Ryder Ripps
Ryder Ripps (born July 7, 1986) is an American conceptual artist, programmer, and creative director.
Early life and education
Born in New York City to a Jewish family, Ryder Ripps is a son of artist Rodney Ripps and designer Helene Verin. H ...
*
Molly Soda
Amalia Soto, known as Molly Soda, is a Brooklyn-based internet performance artist. Soda works across a variety of digital platforms, producing selfies videos, GIFs, zines, and web-based performance art, which are presented both online and in g ...
, who co-curated and included her own work in "Zero Zero"
[
*]Ryan Trecartin
Ryan Trecartin (born 1981) is an American artist and filmmaker currently based in Athens, Ohio. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with a BFA in 2004. Trecartin has since lived and worked in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Ph ...
, whose work was included in the 9th Berlin Biennale and who co-curated the New Museum
The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
History
The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sc ...
's 2015 triennial "Surround Audience" which included DIS[
* Brad Troemel
*]Amalia Ulman
Amalia Ulman (born 1989) is an Argentinian artist and film director based in New York City whose practice includes performance, installation, video and net-art works. Her work deals with issues of class, gender, sexuality, and middlebrow aes ...
, whose work was included in the 9th Berlin Biennale
Gallery
File:Rihanna-Berlin-Biennale.jpg, Sculpture of Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...
as an Acéfalo in the 9th Berlin Biennale by Juan Sebastián Peláez
File:Anna Uddenberg.jpg, Anna Uddenberg at the 9th Berlin Biennale, 2016.
File:GCC (art collective).jpg, GCC collective at the 9th Berlin Biennale, 2016.
File:Artie Vierkant.jpg, Part of Artie Vierkant's ''Image Objects'' series.
File:Fair Trade. Frieze Projects 2012.jpg, Photo by DIS. ''Fair Trade'', Frieze Projects 2012
File:Katja Novitskova.jpg, Spirit, Curiosity and Opportunity, Katja Novitskova, Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin, 2014.
See also
References
Further reading
* Novitskova, Katja. ''Post internet survival guide 2010''. Berlin: Revolver Publishing, 2011.
*McHugh, Gene. ''Post Internet. Notes on the Internet and Art 12.29.09 > 09.05.10'', Brescia: Link Editions, 2011.
External links
* An interview with Martijn Hendriks & Katja Novitskova
"The New Aesthetic and its Politics"
* {{cite web, url=http://artfcity.com/2014/10/14/finally-a-semi-definitive-definition-of-post-internet-art/, title=Finally, a Semi-Definitive Definition of Post-Internet Art, work=Art F City, date=14 October 2014
Reconstruction of Gene McHugh's 'Post-Internet' blog, 2009–10
Theories of aesthetics
Metanarratives
Internet culture
2000s in art
2010s in art