Rosalind Krauss Reinventing The Medium Pdf Now
Reinventing the Medium" (1999) Rosalind Krauss explores how photography shifted from an aesthetic object to a theoretical one, eventually leading to a "post-medium condition" where artists must invent their own specific "technical supports"
2. Key Concept: The “Post-Medium Condition”
Krauss borrows the term “post-medium condition” from philosopher Stanley Cavell. However, she clarifies that this condition does not mean the end of media. Rather, it signals the breakdown of traditional, a priori media (e.g., painting, sculpture) and opens the possibility for artists to invent new, specific media on a case-by-case basis. rosalind krauss reinventing the medium pdf
1. James Coleman (The Slide-Tape)
As mentioned, Coleman’s work uses a single slide projected over time with layered audio. Krauss argues that this medium creates a “suspended” temporality. Unlike cinema (24 frames per second), the slide projector allows for duration without narrative flow. The viewer is trapped in a perpetual present, which Coleman uses to explore political trauma (e.g., The Boy Who Saw the Iceberg). Reinventing the Medium" (1999) Rosalind Krauss explores how
“Reinventing the Medium” is her answer to this crisis. She argues that the medium is not dead; rather, we have been looking at it the wrong way. The medium is not a physical support (canvas, marble, clay). Instead, it is a technical support—a set of conventions, recursive rules, and material constraints that generate artistic meaning. Rather, it signals the breakdown of traditional, a
Critical Reception and Legacy
“Reinventing the Medium” has been enormously influential, but also contested:
In her 1999 Critical Inquiry essay, "Reinventing the Medium," Rosalind Krauss outlines the "post-medium condition," arguing that artists can combat "art-in-general" by adopting obsolete technologies as new "technical supports". Drawing on Benjaminian concepts, she posits that artists must invent unique mediums through self-interrogation and specific, non-traditional media, using artists like James Coleman and William Kentridge as examples. The full text is available via The University of Chicago Press.
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