Glossary

Post-Internet art refers to art that explores the cultural, social and aesthetic implications of the internet once it is no longer a technological novelty but has become an everyday given. This art form describes work made with the assumption that the internet has already fully shaped culture. Those artworks simply exist downstream of a networked world, whether or not it uses digital tools directly.

The name is often misread. Post-internet doesn't mean "after" the internet, it means a body of work made once the internet had stopped feeling new. It is no longer a novelty to comment on. The term traces back to a 2008 conversation involving artist and critic Marisa Olson, and was developed further over the following years by writers like Gene McHugh.

The key distinction is where the work lives: net art of the late 1990s used the internet primarily as its medium, existing mostly as browser-based work. Post-internet practices move freely between online and offline formats. A physical sculpture, a gallery installation, even a painting can be post-internet, as long as it stays internet-conscious.