The introduction takes us into a discussion of Installation Art as a supposed medium. I don't see how it can pretend to be a single medium; a medium as far as I can tell involves a specific material, used in accordance with enduring cultural guidelines or at least following some specified tecnique. All mediums aside, Installation Art is supposed to represent an entirely new approach to art. But if Installation is as revolutionary as its authors insist, then A) why hasn't it changed the world for the better and B) 

I find this question has not yet been addressed. The introduction to the book states, "Earlier attempts to define installation art by medium alone failed because it is in the nature of the practice itself to challenge its own boundaries." This makes it sound like installation is not for the most part locked within its own set of specified cultural norms, responding firstly to the expectations and presumptions of its viewers; that it is totally original and more or less immune to the limitations of history. But flippng through the book, although there are many surprises, I don't see that as true. Most installations, unless their authors are profoundly priviledged, conform to certain types of media and categories of expectation.

I'm sorry but I can only respond to the image of the "travelling artist" who is "hermetic" and "constantly on the move" as profoundly elitist. Not satisfied to speak to one viewership and try to interpret their own cultural experience, cutting edge artists have taken it upon themselves to interpret the world for everyone, to dispense with their own experience or perhaps to try to conceal it, in order to be the voice of the world we live in. Who are they? They have identities, they are not invisible. I think it's funny that artists who are supposed to have surpassed modern industrial limitations in thinking, and let go of archaic prejudices that until now dominated the aesthetic landscape, have still not dispensed with the culturally exhumed idea of "greatness." They have proved that there are worse illusions than paintings.

Stefan Bruggemann's "Opening" Bruce Gilbert's "Cross Over"