At the Limits of Intermedia: Contemporary Art and the Politics of Technology

Contemporary art is now being shaped by the first generation of artists to come of age after the digital revolution of the 1990s. Not coincidentally, these artists continue the legacy of the medium-defying artists of the 1960s and 1970s by fluidly transgressing cultural boundaries more broadly. Chief among these is the historical boundary between the discourses of technology, gender, and race: notably, their works underscore the intersection of these terms. Drawing on contemporary theoretical discussions, this paper examines recent intermedia sculptures and environments as exemplary of the ways in which contemporary art itself theorizes technology, expanding the limits of how we understand technology, politics, and art.