After Art

Art as we know it is dramatically changing, but popular and critical responses lag behind. In this trenchant illustrated essay, David Joselit describes how art and architecture are being transformed in the age of Google. Under the dual pressures of digital technology, which allows images to be reformatted and disseminated effortlessly, and the exponential acceleration of cultural exchange enabled by globalisation, artists and architects are emphasising networks as never before.

Some of the most interesting contemporary work in both fields is now based on visualising patterns of dissemination after objects and structures are produced, and after they enter into, and even establish, diverse networks. Behaving like human search engines, artists and architects sort, capture, and reformat existing content. Works of art crystallise out of populations of images, and buildings emerge out of the dynamics of the circulation patterns they will house.

Examining the work of architectural firms such as OMA, Reiser + Umemoto, and Foreign Office, as well as the art of Matthew Barney, Ai Weiwei, Sherrie Levine, and many others, After Art provides a compelling and original theory of art and architecture in the age of global networks.

'[A] succulent little book.' - Flora Samuel, Times Higher Education

'Joselit points out a stimulating journey through recent art and architecture where his discourse functions as a sort of guide, complete with images and diagrams, within the illuminating text.' - Kieran Lyons, Leonardo Reviews

'After Art is insightful and offers countless examples of the cultural and political forces influencing creative arts...[W]ell-referenced and clearly written.' - Choice

'Joselit, a Yale professor and critic whose previous writings have assiduously observed the intersection of art and tech, lays his argument out with pedagogic steadiness.' - Art Review