Artie Vierkant - The Image Object Post-Internet

"This is a complicated turn, as communities are for the moment more likely to form based on aesthetic principles than conceptual or ideological ones. Whether these aesthetic principles mean a preference for sleek geometric shapes with gradient overlays or mean a preference for a particular blogging platform, the underlying segmentation is the same. Posting an image of a gradient implicates an artist within a particular aesthetic mindset in the same way that having a Tumblr adheres an artist to a particular format of transmission. In either case, the architecture of the Internet—an arrangement of language, sound, and images in which imagery is the most dominant, immediate factor—helps facilitate an environment where artists are able to rely more and more on purely visual representations to convey their ideas and support an explanation of their art independent of language. This is a crucial point of departure from recent art history, as arguably it marks an abandonment of language and semiotics as base metaphors for articulating works of art and our relationship to objects and culture."

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