culturebriefs
8:47in productionCh. 1 · Born in two steps/ 8:47 · ceiling 15 min
Movements & scenes

Post-Internet

It’s not after the internet—it’s inside it, breathing the same air as your browser, your silk scarf, and your 3D-printed sculpture.

Post-Internet is a loosely defined 21st-century art movement. It emerged after the internet became ubiquitous—not as a period 'after' the internet, but as an 'internet state of mind'. Marisa Olson coined the term in 2006. Gene McHugh adopted it in 2009 via his blog, turning it into a movement. Artists make work that moves fluidly between screens and galleries, drawing on the web’s visual language while engaging critically with networked culture. Mediums include Second Life portraits, digital paintings on silk, and 3-D-printed sculpture.

Movements & scenesInternet cultureThe internetAbstractionInternet culture across the network →
Chapters & takeaways4
  1. 0:51
    Born in two steps

    The term was coined by Marisa Olson in 2006—and turned into a movement by Gene McHugh’s 2009 blog.

  2. 2:16
    An internet state of mind

    It names a state of mind—not a time—where the internet is so embedded that imagining life outside it feels impossible.

  3. 3:58
    After ubiquity, not invention

    It begins only after the internet became ubiquitous—not when it launched, but when it disappeared into daily life.

  4. 5:20
    Fluid spaces, hybrid materials

    Artworks move fluidly between screens and galleries, using mediums from Second Life portraits to digital paintings on silk.

Worth your time?

Yes. Study the whole thing.

4/ 5
What works
  • as a diagnostic term for infrastructural saturation
  • as a rejection of digital exceptionalism
  • as a framework for material pluralism
What does not
  • define a decade
  • start a movement
  • influence named artists
Study it if
  • artists working across digital and physical media
  • curators negotiating hybrid exhibition formats
  • critics tracking infrastructure’s aesthetic absorption
Skip it if
  • those seeking historical origin stories
  • those looking for technical instruction in coding or 3D printing
  • those expecting consensus on aesthetics or politics
The written brief1 min read

What the thing is

A 21st-century contemporary art movement. Not a period after the internet, but an ‘internet state of mind’.

Where it came from

Marisa Olson coined ‘postinternet art’ in 2006. Gene McHugh adopted it in 2009 via his blog ‘Post-Internet’, turning it into a defined movement rooted in earlier Internet Art.

What it gets right

It names a condition: the internet as ambient medium, not subject. It rejects novelty for material entanglement—screens, silk, 3D printers, Second Life avatars—all treated as equally legitimate substrates.

What it gets wrong

It misleads with its name. ‘Post-Internet’ implies succession, but the movement describes simultaneity: digital and physical are co-constitutive, not sequential stages.

Why it matters now

Because infrastructure is no longer backstage. When algorithms shape perception and platforms dictate display, Post-Internet’s insistence on fluid space—screen to gallery, code to silk—is a working grammar for art that refuses digital exceptionalism.

Is it worth your time

Yes—if you need to understand how art metabolises infrastructure, not just imagery.

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