The Recursive Equation of the Post-Medium

This article systematically reconstructs Rosalind Krauss’s theory of the post-medium by redefining the concept of medium through a logic of double negation and reordering her discourse around the triadic structure of “medium–support–convention.” First, the medium is refigured as hypokeimenon (support): it is neither reducible to material properties (a negation of modernism), nor is it a purely signifying form devoid of reference (a negation of post-structuralism). Rather, the medium is dynamically constituted through conventions and recursive structures. Second, drawing from Stanley Cavell’s notion of “automatism,” Krauss conceptualizes convention as “semi-automatic”: the artist simultaneously inhabits and exceeds conventional procedures, and this internal tension propels the renewal of the medium. Finally, the post-medium operates through recursion – self-examination and redefinition – continually reconstructing its specificity. In doing so, it rejects the linear teleology of modernism while avoiding poststructuralism’s erasure of direction and standards.