Drawing heavily on the theories of , Krauss suggests that a medium’s true aesthetic potential is often only realized when it becomes obsolete . When a technology (like analog photography or slide projectors) is no longer a primary tool for mass-market commodity production, it is "freed" from its utilitarian purpose. This freedom allows artists to look back and use these outmoded tools as a "technical support" for new creative rules and conventions. Examples of "Reinventions"

Krauss borrows from the film theorist Raymond Bellour and the structuralist Marcelin Pleynet. She argues that a medium is not a material but an apparatus that supports aesthetic convention. For example:

Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition, by Joanna Slotkin

“Reinventing the Medium” has been enormously influential, but also contested:

: Uses the automobile and the layout of the "book" as his underlying medium. 3. Why This Text Matters Today The essay is a defense of specificity