Post-Internet

Post-Internet is a 21st-century art movement^[1] involving works that are derived from the Internet or its effects on aesthetics, culture and society.^[2]

Post-Internet is a loosely defined term^[1] that was coined by artist/curator Marisa Olson in an attempt to describe her practice.^[3] It emerged from mid-2000s discussions about Internet art by Gene McHugh (author of a blog titled "Post-Internet"), and Artie Vierkant (artist, and creator of Image Object sculpture series).^[4] The movement itself grew out of Internet Art (or Net Art).^[4] According to the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, rather than referring "to a time “after” the internet", the term refers to "an internet state of mind".^[5] Eva Folks of AQNB wrote that it "references one so deeply embedded in and propelled by the internet that the notion of a world or culture without or outside it becomes increasingly unimaginable, impossible."^[6]

The term is controversial and the subject of much criticism in the art community.^[1] Art in America's Brian Droitcour in 2014 opined that the term fails to describe the form of the works, instead "alluding only to a hazy contemporary condition and the idea of art being made in the context of digital technology."^[7] According to a 2015 article in The New Yorker, the term describes "the practices of artists [whose] artworks move fluidly between spaces, appearing sometimes on a screen, other times in a gallery."^[8] Fast Company's Carey Dunne summarizes they are "artists who are inspired by the visual cacophony of the web" and notes that "mediums from Second Life portraits to digital paintings on silk to 3-D-printed sculpture" are used.^[3]

There is theoretical overlap with writer and artist James Bridle's term New Aesthetic.^[9][2] Ian Wallace of Artspace writes that "the influential blog The New Aesthetic, run since May 2011 by Bridle, is a pioneering institution in the post-Internet movement" and concludes that "much of the energy around the New Aesthetic seems, now, to have filtered over into the "post-Internet" conversation."^[2] Post-Internet art is also discussed by Katja Novitskova as being a part of 'New Materialism'.^[10][11]

Wallace considers the Post-Internet term to stand for "a new aesthetic era," moving "beyond making work dependent on the novelty of the Web to using its tools to tackle other subjects". He notes that the post-Internet generation "frequently uses digital strategies to create objects that exist in the real world."^[2] Or as Louis Doulas writes in Within Post-Internet, Part One (2011): "There is a difference then, in an art that chooses to exist outside of a browser window and an art that chooses to stay within it."^[12]

Though the term "post-internet" originated in the contemporary art world, its influence has extended into popular music, as well as broader fashion trends.^[13]

In the mid-2000s, musician Marisa Olson became the earliest known artist to refer to their music as "post-internet".^[14] This was followed by, music scenes surrounding the early online blogosphere such as bloghouse, blog rap and blog rock,^[15] which all came to define an era of alternative music that was underpinned by the growing nature of the internet as well as MP3 blogs, streaming services and online music journalism.^[16][17][18] By the late 2000s, chillwave became the first musical microgenre and subculture to develop primarily through the Internet.^[19][20][21]

Early post-internet music often embraced ironic, nostalgic, self-referential internet aesthetics, defined by microgenres and subcultures such as seapunk and vaporwave,^[1][22] other influences included the PC Music label founded by A. G. Cook, which gave way to bubblegum bass and hyperpop. These styles incorporated 1990s and early 2000s internet nostalgia, kitsch, online memes, and consumer culture into a new context. They emerged primarily online and were more prevalent there than in traditional performance venues.^[23]

By the late 2010s, post-internet music began to incorporate themes regarding the rise of social media and the increasing dominance of the internet in wider society.^[24][25]

In the early 2010s, "post-Internet music" was originally associated with the musician Grimes, who used the term to describe her work at a time when post-Internet concepts were not typically discussed in mainstream music spaces.^[27][28]

The work of vaporwave pioneers Oneohtrix Point Never (Daniel Lopatin) and James Ferraro^[29][30] have been linked to the pioneering of post-internet related music. Ferraro's Far Side Virtual^[31][32] alongside OPN's Age Of^[33] have been described as reflections of the post-internet age. Other influential artists include the works of Hayden Dunham and Holly Herndon.^[23][34]

Some post-internet musicians have also collaborated with post-internet visual artists, such as Jon Rafman's work with Oneohtrix Point Never on a two-part music video for "Sticky Drama", from Lopatin's 2015 album Garden of Delete.^[35][36] James Ferraro had also experimented with post-internet related visual art, releasing the film "9/11 Simulation in Roblox Environment" in 2017.^[37]

The independent record label, Hippos in Tanks founded by Barron Machat and Travis Woolsey in 2010, was a leading influence in post-internet music, featuring artists like Dean Blunt, Inga Copeland, Grimes, James Ferraro, Autre Ne Veut, Laurel Halo, Hype Williams, and Arca.^[38][39]

James Ferraro experimented with hip-hop with the release of his albums Inhale C-4 $$$$$ and Sushi.

Soundcloud rap has been credited with emerging primarily on the internet.^[41][42][43] Amarco referred to internet cloud rap artist Yung Lean, who visually drew influence from seapunk and vaporwave aesthetics,^[44][45] as "by and large a product of the internet and a leading example of a generation of youths who garner fame through social media."^[1] Additionally, rapper Sematary's sound has been described as "distinctly post-internet".^[46]

The Swedish internet rap collective Drain Gang, consisting of Bladee, Ecco2K, Thaiboy Digital, and Whitearmor, have also been described as reflective of post-internet music.^[47][40] In 2025, Bladee and James Ferraro collaborated with Microsoft on an interactive visual art project incorporating generative AI.^[48][49]

Other rappers who have been described as post-internet include JPEGMafia^[50][51] and Edward Skeletrix,^[52] the latter of whom initially gained popularity by experimenting with AI-generated videos to TikTok.

There have been a number of significant group art shows explicitly exploring Post-Internet themes. There was a 2014 exhibition called Art Post-Internet at Beijing's Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, which ARTnews named one of the "most art exhibitions of the 2010s"^[53] which "set out to encapsulate the budding movement."^[2] MoMA curated Ocean of Images in 2015, a show "probing the effects of an image-based post-Internet reality."^[54] The 2016 9th Berlin Biennale, titled The Present in Drag, curated by the art collective DIS, is described as a Post-Internet exhibition.^[55][56][57] Other examples include:

• Raster Raster, Aran Cravey Gallery, Los Angeles, 2014^[58]
• 2015 Triennial: Surround Audience at New Museum, New York, 2015^[59][60]
• Zero Zero, Annka Kulty Gallery, London, 2016^[61]

• 
  Photo by DIS. Fair Trade, Frieze Projects 2012

• Novitskova, Katja. Post internet survival guide 2010. Berlin: Revolver Publishing, 2011. ISBN 978-3-86895-350-3
• McHugh, Gene. Post Internet. Notes on the Internet and Art 12.29.09 > 09.05.10, Brescia: Link Editions, 2011.

• "Post-Internet Materialism". metropolism.com. Retrieved 2015-03-15. An interview with Martijn Hendriks & Katja Novitskova
• "The New Aesthetic and its Politics"
• "Finally, a Semi-Definitive Definition of Post-Internet Art". Art F City. 14 October 2014.
• Reconstruction of Gene McHugh's 'Post-Internet' blog, 2009–10