“Reinventing the Medium” became foundational for:
To illustrate reinvention, Krauss analyzes Irish artist James Coleman’s Projected Images (slide projections with voiceover). Coleman does not use “film” (traditional medium) or “photography” (also traditional). Instead, he creates a by combining:
The essay posits that every genuine artistic medium is a form of . The artist does not invent a new medium from scratch. Rather, they find a dormant technical support (like a postcard, a phonograph, or a video monitor) and "reinvent" it by uncovering its internal, forgotten logic. rosalind krauss reinventing the medium pdf
The essay also serves as a brilliant continuation of Krauss’s lifelong engagement with photography. Rather than viewing photography purely as a tool for documentary realism or commercial reproduction, Krauss explores how contemporary artists use the photographic medium to interrogate memory, narrative, and the archive. Through the recursive, repetitive nature of Coleman's slide installations, the medium becomes a site for investigating how human perception is structured over time. Why "Reinventing the Medium" Matters Today
: She discusses how photography and film transitioned from artistic tools to mere "appliances," losing their unique aesthetic power. The artist does not invent a new medium from scratch
: 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
At the end of the 20th century, this is the moment when photography is perceived as an outdated medium, out of fashion, and as such, it allows artists to invent it anew each time. Rather than viewing photography purely as a tool
: Greenberg collapsed a medium's identity into its material properties. Krauss, drawing on post-structuralist thought (particularly Derrida's deconstruction), argues that a medium is actually "a complex structure of interlocking and interdependent technical supports and layered conventions distinct from physical properties". For her, the specificity of a medium lies in its "constitutive heterogeneity—the fact that it always differs from itself".
In the landscape of late 20th-century art theory, few texts have sparked as much debate as Rosalind Krauss’s seminal essay, Reinventing the Medium (1999). For students and theorists seeking the Rosalind Krauss Reinventing the Medium PDF