Rosalind Krauss Reinventing The Medium Pdf ((full))
Rosalind Krauss — Reinventing the Medium: A Short Blog Post
Rosalind Krauss’s essay "Reinventing the Medium" reframes how we think about artistic media, challenging the simple idea that each art form has a single, stable "medium" (painting, sculpture, photography). Instead, Krauss argues that media are historically and institutionally produced: what counts as a medium changes through artistic practice, critical discourse, and museum and market systems. This shift moves the conversation from essentialist definitions toward relations, techniques, and conditions that produce meaning.
- Video is not just magnetic tape. It is the technical support of real-time feedback, closed-circuit delay, and the psychodynamics of the mirror.
- Photography is not paper and chemicals. It is the indexical trace—the physical imprint of light from a past object.
The Premise: The Death of the Modernist Medium
To understand why Krauss felt the medium needed reinvention, one must first understand what she was reacting against.
Drawing on Walter Benjamin, Krauss notes that mechanical reproduction destroyed traditional notions of artistic unity and authorship. II. From "Medium" to "Technical Support" rosalind krauss reinventing the medium pdf
3. Reinvention via “Technical Supports”
Krauss replaces the Greenbergian “material base” with the concept of the technical support. A technical support is not a physical substance (canvas, bronze) but a set of operational rules and conventions that produce artistic meaning. Examples include:
: Drawing on Walter Benjamin, Krauss suggests that when a technology becomes obsolete (like slide projectors or manual film), it is "redeemed" for art because it is no longer a tool of mass consumption. Case Studies in Reinvention James Coleman Rosalind Krauss — Reinventing the Medium: A Short
's focus on physical materials (like the flatness of canvas) toward "technical supports" that are discursive and historical. The Power of Obsolescence: Inspired by Walter Benjamin
7. Influence and Legacy
“Reinventing the Medium” became foundational for: Video is not just magnetic tape
Krauss, Reinventing The Medium (Critical Inquiry 1999) - Scribd
