Patrick Lichty, in that post-pompous internet thread on Rhizome:
I find it sort of funny that Tom seems to have the appearance of a little intergenerational angst.
and
I'm just throwing this out, because I feel like I honestly don't have a clue anymore. I'm not looking for a new Dada Soiree or a Futurist Manifesto, but honestly, I ask WTF? at times... I'd really love to see some people take some risks that aren't aimed at commenting on the art world, art fairs or Marina Abramovic (I'm just as guilty as anyone else here).
and
Somehow, I just have this gut feeling that in the 'Post New Media' era, we're flailing around, looking for a signpost.
My response (response-ish because am not sure what Lichty's putting out there):
In the "sings the blogs" example above, "post-internet" was a rather trite way of saying your art was based on something the whole world was already reacting to. The other term was "internet aware art." When Guthrie Lonergan first used it, it was a joke: like, I think we're all pretty aware of the internet. Then people such as Ed Halter started saying it meant "art based on the internet" and Guthrie defined it again in a joking way, meaning art made with an idea to how it was going to look on the internet. Calling something a bullshit label isn't necessarily an intergenerational conflict. Artists younger than me also laugh at "post-internet."
There are good things keeping us occupied in this pre-"post-" stage. Just anecdotally, in my own recent experience:
I see people on dump.fm doing amazing work with Photoblaster and bon.gs and GIFmelter and it's all relatively new, or at least a relatively new mix of HTML5, canvas and/or jquery and the old filetypes that still work in browsers.
In Computers Club Drawing Society we use communally available drawing software (from the late '90s I think) to make new drawings on a blog: this isn't aggregating or archiving, the work is made from scratch with software that doesn't allow cloning, importing, or pasting screenshots, only digital drawing and painting.
I'm also involved with the modular synthesis revival where cottage industries are springing up to build small pieces of hardware that combine old-fashioned voltage control with Arduino boards, granular synthesis and other purely digital processing.
None of this is "post-" anything but it's also not New in the sense of a James Bridle repackaging well-known concepts to promote his own work. Just because there's no buzzword doesn't mean people are flailing.
Keyword: post-panels internet
