Contemporary ART-HIST Final: Key Terms

A 1968 Argentine activist art campaign exposing poverty and government oppression in Tucumán province, blending journalism, installation, and performance to critique dictatorship

Tucumán Arde (Tucumán is Burning):

A Brazilian art movement (late 1950s–60s) rejecting rationalism of Concrete Art in favor of subjective, participatory experiences, emphasizing viewer interaction

Neoconcretism:

Interactive sculptures by Lygia Clark (Brazil), meaning “critters” or “creatures,” which could be manipulated by viewers, challenging static art forms

Bichos:

Wearable fabric structures by Hélio Oiticica, designed for movement and dance, blending art with Afro-Brazilian culture and political expression

Parangolés:

Soviet Pop Art parody movement in 1980s USSR that mimicked Socialist Realism and Western Pop to critique propaganda and commodification

SOTS Art:

An aesthetic used by Eastern European artists (notably NSK), combining avant-garde forms with historic, often authoritarian imagery to critique ideology

Retroavantgarde:

A Slovenian art collective formed in the 1980s using irony and totalitarian aesthetics to critique nationalism, memory, and political authority

NSK (Neue Slowenische Kunst):

Art institutions founded across Eastern Europe post-1991 with funding from George Soros to support contemporary, experimental art practices after the fall of communism

Soros Centers of Contemporary Art (SCCA):

A surge of experimental art in China during the mid-1980s, introducing Western modernist ideas, individual expression, and avant-garde forms

'85 New Wave Movement:

A landmark experimental art show in Beijing that introduced radical contemporary Chinese art to the public—shut down briefly after a performance involving a gun

China/Avant-garde Exhibition (1989):

A Chinese art movement blending Pop Art with Communist iconography to critique commercialization and political ideology

Political Pop:

Post-1989 Chinese art style marked by irony, satire, and disillusionment with politics and society, often depicting absurd or resigned figures

Cynical Realism:

Coined by Takashi Murakami, this postmodern Japanese art movement blends anime, pop culture, and consumerism, emphasizing flat, two-dimensional aesthetics

Superflat Style:

A global cultural and political movement uniting African peoples and the diaspora to resist colonialism and celebrate shared heritage

Pan-Africanism:

A traditional wax-resist textile dyeing technique originating in Indonesia, also widely used in African and global textile art

Batik:

A vibrant, woven cloth from Ghana, rich in symbolism, traditionally worn for ceremonial purposes and associated with cultural identity and status

Kente:

System of institutionalized racial segregation in South Africa (1948–1994); also refers to the art movements resisting or commenting on it

Apartheid:

Art created by Indigenous Australians, often rooted in Dreaming stories and traditional practices, using symbolic patterns and sacred narratives

Aboriginal Art:

Aboriginal spiritual and cultural narratives that link people, land, and time; rhizomatic refers to nonlinear, interconnected structures of meaning

Jukurrpa or Dreaming Stories / Rhizomatic Connections:

Art practices involving direct community interaction or activism;

emphasizes global interconnectedness without flattening cultural difference

Socially-engaged Art / Planetarity:

A proposed geological epoch marked by human impact on Earth’s systems; in art, it informs works about climate change, extinction, and ecological crisis

Anthropocene:

 West Coast U.S. movement (1960s–70s) focused on perceptual phenomena—using light, volume, and sensory experience over traditional materials

Light and Space Art:

 A sensory deprivation effect used in installation art (e.g., James Turrell) where viewers lose spatial orientation in color-saturated environments.

Ganzfeld:

Coined by anthropologist Marc Augé to describe transient spaces (airports, malls) lacking identity or history—often critiqued in contemporary art

Non-place:

 A U.S.-based research organization using art and education to investigate how humans shape the land, often through installations or data-driven projects.

Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI):

Term by Nicolas Bourriaud describing art focused on human interaction and social contexts rather than object-making

Relational Art:

Refers to the emotional and bodily responses that artworks evoke—distinct from intellectual interpretation, central to contemporary theory

Affect:

 Digital media that uses GPS/location data (e.g., mobile apps, maps) in art to engage with space and place in real time.

Locative Media:

refers to global flows of images and information

covers digital, interactive, and technological art forms (video, web, VR, etc)

Mediascape and New Media

An environment (often digital or sensor-based) that reacts to the presence or behavior of participants, used in installation and interactive art

Responsive Environment:

refers to the coexistence of multiple temporalities and perspectives in today’s art;

emphasizes recombination and sampling across media and histories

Contemporaneity and Culture of Remix