This is to be contrasted with the modernist idea of the disciplinary boundaries of the medium or medium specificity and the traditional emphasis on the single photo as an object of art in an art gallery. The former involves a shift away from, or a displacement of, spontaneity, self-expression and immediacy by putting into play repetition and the iterative (repetitive) character of the instruction.
It is to be contrasted with the Australian avant garde’s 1980s understanding of performance as a unique and spontaneous event that cannot be repeated or documented on film or video. From my experience at the EAF in Adelaide this post-object art was coupled to a deep hostility to two dimensional art–eg., to painting, printmaking and photography.
Walk down a country road and take ten modernist photographs of a pink gum and a Xanthorrhoea. I only managed to take two:
But therein lies the beginnings of a small artist’s (low budget) book on conceptual photography composed of snap shots and text. This would be in the tradition of ED Ruscha’s Twenty Six Gasoline Stations and Jeff Wall’s Landscape Manual, as distinct from addressing the situation of photography after conceptual art.