Post-Internet Art
About
Post-Internet refers to a current trend in art and criticism concerned with the impact of the Internet on art and culture. Taking cues from the understanding of Postmodernism as a reaction to or rejection of Modernism, post-Internet does not imply a time “after” the Internet but rather a time “about” the Internet. While Net Art of the late 1990s used the Internet primarily as a medium, post-Internet practices use both online and offline formats to engage with digital culture, corporate culture, and the effects of ubiquitous networking. Emerging from discussions with Maria Olson in 2008 and elaborated further by critic Gene McHugh in 2009, the term post-Internet continues to evolve, and not all artists often associated with it (for example, AIDS-3D, Petra Cortright, Lucky PDF, Jon Rafman, Ryan Trecartin, Amalia Ulman, Harm van den Dorpel, Artie Vierkant, and Addie Wagenknecht) embrace it. Recent exhibitions such as 2014’s Art Post-Internet at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, in Beijing, and the New Museum’s 2015 Triennial Surround Audience, in New York, have arguably helped canonize the term.
