Algorithmic Postmodernism: A Framework

Algorithmic Postmodernism is a conceptual framework originated by Hoang-Dan Pham, conceived in 2024 with the founding of Hand-Fetish-Projects and formally stated in 2026. It describes a condition in which visibility increasingly precedes interpretation: search engines, recommendation systems and artificial-intelligence-based indexing decide what reaches attention before any person has encountered it, and so shape the conditions under which cultural value is recognised. It also takes a position: human beings should retain the power to decide what matters. Algorithmic Postmodernism is not a claim of total system control, and it takes no stance for or against artificial intelligence. Its specific contribution is to name a judge that evaluates each work from its own context, not from the context in which the work was made: a function with an authored goal and no authored rule. It locates that judge in art, the field built entirely on judging whether something deserves attention. The framework emerged from the practice of Hand-Fetish-Projects, an independent arthouse, and is positioned here against Lyotard, Baudrillard, Deleuze, Wiener and Doctorow.