It proves that "medium" is not a static definition but a continually renegotiated, "reinvented" concept. 5. Conclusion
– The book presents detailed analyses of artists such as:
By the 1970s and 1980s, the rise of Conceptual art, installation art, performance, and institutional critique shattered these boundaries. Art became "post-medium." Artists mixed materials indiscriminately, and the traditional definitions of painting and sculpture seemed obsolete. rosalind krauss reinventing the medium pdf
This document provides an overview and analysis of Rosalind Krauss's essay "Reinventing the Medium." The summary is as follows: 1) Rosalind Krauss: between modernism and post- medium
Krauss warns against the trendy, late-90s embrace of "mixed media" or installation art that simply uses whatever technology is available without critical thought. She argues that when art becomes entirely unmoored from a specific medium, it loses its capacity for self-critique. It risks becoming mere entertainment, mimicking the shallow commercialism of television and advertising. 2. The Automation of the Image It proves that "medium" is not a static
Rosalind Krauss’s “Reinventing the Medium” argues that the medium is not a given but an . An artist reinvents the medium by:
"Reinventing the Medium" is Krauss's attempt to rescue the concept of the medium from this ideological graveyard. Rather than abandoning the term, she argues we must reinvent it. She does this by introducing a series of interconnected ideas that have become foundational to media studies, digital art theory, and contemporary criticism. Art became "post-medium
Explain the difference between a and a "technical support" ?
In later lectures and texts expanding on this concept, Krauss and subsequent theorists applied this logic to contemporary practitioners. For example, artists who engage with early digital technologies—like hacking vintage video game cartridges or shooting on celluloid film in an era of 8K digital video—are not merely wallowing in nostalgia. Instead, they are actively constructing a "medium" out of an obsolete technical apparatus. They establish a set of baseline limitations, allowing for formal expression and resistance against the slick, seamless homogeneity of modern consumer tech. The Technical Apparatus vs. The Artistic Medium
: Instead of abandoning the idea of a medium, Krauss suggests artists must "reinvent" it by creating their own internal sets of rules and structures.
: Krauss argues that traditional artistic mediums have been "outmoded" by technology and mass media.