Post Internet: Notes on the Internet and Art 12.29.09 > 09.05.10

by Gene McHugh, Domenico Quaranta (Editor)

Post Internet was a blog developed between December 2009 and September 2010 by the New York based art critic Gene McHugh, thanks to a grant of the Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program. For almost a year, Gene McHugh kept filling this folder with his personal notes. Writing and posting became a daily, regular activity, that sometimes produced many posts a day, sometimes longer texts posted at a slower pace. However, Post Internet is not just a piece of beautiful criticism - it’s also, in itself, a piece of Post Internet art in the shape of an art criticism blog - “criticism as performance” (Domenico Quaranta). Post Internet went offline somewhere at the end of 2015. In 2019, Rhizome restored the blog and made it available online again through the Net Art Anthology. The 1st edition of this book was used in the restoration process, that Link Editions is celebrating with this 2nd edition. Check the restored website out at https://122909a.com.rhizome.org/.

Genres: Nonfiction, Theory, Technology, Art

346 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 2011

Reviews

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

McHugh's reflections and commentary on the worlds within the internet pinpoints the intricate oddities that it houses; an infinite series of juxtapositions, contradtictions, contrasts, reflections, anad above all, brain scratching revelations about the evolution of the position of the Internet in our increasingly digital world. There were so many moments where I found myself vigorously nodding my head along, taking in the newly obvious analysis of even my own mundane actions online coming to these epiphanies about the epistemological stakes in this ethernet bound society. This collection is a great introduction to the foundations of conversations of art in the Age of the Internet.

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found his analysis of artworks to be overly reductive, but the last few entries on performance and the internet were enough to make reading the book worthwhile.