By the end of the essay, Krauss has effectively shifted the debate. She moves criticism away from asking "What is the physical object?" to asking "What are the recursive rules that structure this work's reception?"

| Theme | How It Appears in the Book | |-------|----------------------------| | | Krauss revisits Clement Greenberg’s idea, arguing that photography now interrogates its own materiality—its surface, light, and mechanical processes—rather than merely representing reality. | | The “Post‑Photographic” | Essays discuss works that blur the line between image and object (e.g., installations, digital manipulations), showing how artists treat the photograph as a site for theory and experience. | | Historical Dialogue | Contributors trace links from early modernist photographers (e.g., László Moholy‑Nagyi) to late‑20th‑century practices, emphasizing continuity and rupture. | | Institutional Critique | The book examines how museums and galleries frame photographic works, questioning the authority of exhibition spaces in defining what counts as “art.” | | Technology & Materiality | Discussions of digital printing, Xerox, and video highlight how new technologies expand the photographic vocabulary. |

Explain the difference between a and a "technical support" ?

Krauss rejects both. She argues that the medium is neither dead nor merely material. Instead, it must be as a technical support —a set of conventions, practices, and apparatuses that artists can reactivate.

This is the crux of "reinventing": the artist does not abandon the medium; they restructure it. They acknowledge its conventions in order to open them up to self-critique.

For Krauss, the crisis of modern art occurred when artists could no longer blindly rely on these conventions. The old supports (the canvas, the pedestal) became hollow. If art was to survive, it couldn't just abandon the idea of a medium—it had to it.