Luke Turner
| Luke Turner | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | British |
| Subjects | Art theory; performance art |
| Movement | Metamodernism |
| Occupation | Artist; writer; art theorist |
| Notable works | Metamodernist Manifesto; He Will Not Divide Us |
| Era | 21st century |
| Known for | Metamodernist Manifesto; articulation of sincerity–irony oscillation; LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner |
| Wikidata | Q118610834 |
Luke Turner (born 1982) is a British artist, curator, and writer known for his work in contemporary art and theory. He came to prominence as one of the early proponents of metamodernism – a cultural movement that seeks to move beyond postmodern irony by embracing both sincerity and ambiguity. Turner gained attention for co-editing the website Notes on Metamodernism and, in 2011, publishing a short Metamodernist Manifesto that articulated key ideas about oscillation, hope, irony, and belief in art and culture His creative practice, often in collaboration with the Finnish artist Nastja Säde Rönkkö, includes participatory performance projects (such as “#TAKEMEANYWHERE” and “#HeWillNotDivideUs”) that explore community, communication, and political themes. An overview of Turner’s life and ideas reveals his role in shaping discussions of sincerity, irony, and collective creativity in twenty-first-century art.
Early Life and Education
Luke Turner was born in Manchester, England, in 1982 He studied art in London, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London) in 2008 and a Master of Arts in Photography at the Royal College of Art in 2010 From the late 1990s, Turner was involved in internet-based art projects; for example, he helped develop “The Void,” an experimental website of that era After completing his education, Turner remained active in the London art scene. He co-founded the online platform Metamodernism.com and later co-edited the part of that platform known as Notes on Metamodernism, helping to establish a hub for discussions of new cultural trends Around 2008 he began a long-term collaborative partnership with Nastja Säde Rönkkö, creating performance and video works that often involve audience participation and social engagement.
Major Works and Ideas
Turner’s most influential written work is the Metamodernist Manifesto (2011), a brief text that outlines the principles of his approach. The manifesto declares, for example, “We recognise oscillation to be the natural order of the world,” and ultimately defines metamodernism as “the mercurial condition between and beyond irony and sincerity” Key themes include oscillation (the idea that culture swings between extremes rather than settling into one style) and informed naivety (acknowledging paradox and embracing hope even amid uncertainty) Turner argues that the contemporary era is marked by a pendulum-like movement between modernist ideals (sincerity, romanticism, affect) and postmodern attitudes (irony, cynicism, deconstruction), and that today’s artists and viewers can hold both states at once As he writes, the “metamodern generation understands that we can be both ironic and sincere in the same moment; that one does not necessarily diminish the other”
In prose and interviews Turner elaborated these ideas. In a 2014 essay he noted that people raised on generations of irony (for example, 1980s–90s pop culture) have developed “a yearning for meaning – for sincere and constructive progression and expression” He contrasted postmodernism (characterised by skepticism, relativism, and detachment) with a new mood that revives concepts like hope, grand narratives, and universal truths, while still retaining the critical lessons of the postmodern era This suggests that Turner's metamodernism is not a simple return to naive optimism but a complex blend of idealism and critical awareness. His manifesto and essays introduced terms like “informed naivety” and “pragmatic idealism” to describe this stance.
Turner’s ideas have been linked to broader discussions of the “New Sincerity” in art and culture. Commentators note that in the twenty-first century many artists and writers have combined earnestness with self-awareness, moving away from the detached cynicism of the late 20th century For instance, art critics have observed that the ironic detachment of the 1990s has given way to work that openly acknowledges its own naivety or simplicity as part of its value, an attitude captured by Turner’s phrase about being “both ironic and sincere in the same moment”
Turner has also applied his concept of metamodernism in practice. With Rönkkö and actor Shia LaBeouf, he co-created several high-profile performance art projects. Notable among these is #TAKEMEANYWHERE (2014), in which the three artists literally wandered through Europe based only on directions from online followers, exploring trust and chance in a public medium Their 2017-2018 project #HeWillNotDivideUs, originally displayed at the Museum of the Moving Image (NY) and FACT (Liverpool), invited passersby to repeat a pledge against political division into a live-streamed microphone Earlier, in 2017, the group staged #ALONETOGETHER, a “performative music video” at Helsinki’s Kiasma museum that revisited private journal entries in a public setting. These works exemplify Turner’s interest in communal art and sincere engagement: viewers participate directly and the art blurs the lines between artist, audience, and social action. (Turner’s role in these was as one of the artists; often the projects are credited to “LaBeouf/Rönkkö/Turner.”)
Aside from these performances, Turner has contributed to art publishing and platforms. He co-curated the online magazine HOAX, which began around 2008, as a space for publishing text-based creative works alongside images. He also curates exhibitions and projects (for example, a 2025 project titled “Manifesto for Sustainable Experimentation” at Beaconsfield, London) that reflect his thematic concerns. Throughout, a central artistic idea is exploring dwelling in tension between opposites: so-called “oscillations” between sincerity and irony, utopian and dystopian impulses, emotional vulnerability and wry self-awareness. Turner's writing and art emphasize that this oscillating stance can be generative – it allows for hopefulness without gullibility, structure without dogmatism, and an “earnestness” that is aware of its own artifice.
Method
Turner’s artistic method is often collaborative, participatory, and multi-media. As an artist and writer, he works across online media, video, performance, text, and photography to provoke reflection on culture. His own description of his practice speaks of using “online media, video, text and photography to explore the operations and oscillations of art, fostering new forms of communality across digital and physical networks” In practical terms, this meant building projects (like #TAKEMEANYWHERE) that live-stream events, engage crowds, or utilize social media as a medium. He treats the audience and network as components of the artwork, in line with the participatory art tradition.
In writing and theory, Turner’s method combined manifesto-style pronouncements with philosophical reflection. The Metamodernist Manifesto itself reads like an art-politico statement: terse, aphoristic points that mix poetic language with technical terms (e.g. “entropy,” “scientific-poetic synthesis,” “magical realism” He also uses examples drawn from contemporary life—pop culture, technology, and politics—to illustrate his points. For example, Turner notes that today’s generation is “raised in the ‘80s and ‘90s, on a diet of The Simpsons and South Park,” in which irony was the default setting, yet they still feel a “yearning for meaning” This style of explanation connects metamodern theory to widely understood references.
Underpinning Turner’s method is a critical use of art historical ideas. Metamodernism implicitly critiques both Modernism (with its absolute ideals) and Postmodernism (with its total irony), and Turner frequently invokes historical figures (like the 60s artist Joseph Beuys, or literary figures) to contextualize his ideas He also aligns his notion with recent philosophical trends such as Speculative Realism, Object-Oriented Ontology, and political movements like Occupy or Black Lives Matter to show that metamodern attitudes have broad relevance.
Importantly, Turner himself cautioned that metamodernism is not intended as a fixed methodology. In his writing he stresses that metamodernism is not a closed ideology or prescriptive aesthetic. It has no official rules, and he explicitly wrote that it is “not a manifesto – although, as an artist myself, I couldn’t resist... with my 2011 Metamodernist Manifesto an exercise in simultaneously defining and embodying the metamodern spirit; at once coherent and preposterous, earnest and somewhat self-defeating, yet ultimately hopeful and optimistic.” In other words, Turner’s “method” was self-consciously experimental: he both advocated sincerity and irony, then treated the act of defining metamodernism as a playful, paradoxical project itself. He and other theorists have compared this stance to the German Romantic idea of embracing the “double bind” or holding a “dialectical tension” between opposites.
Influence
Turner has played a significant role in bringing metamodern ideas into art theory and criticism. By co-editing a widely read website on the topic and engaging with other thinkers (like Dutch cultural theorists Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker), he helped popularize the term metamodernism in the English-speaking art world His manifesto has been cited or reprinted in academic and artistic contexts globally. Art critics such as Jerry Saltz have observed related trends; for example, noting a shift away from the purely cynical art of the 1990s toward art that mixes sincerity with irony. Saltz commented that modern artists today acknowledge their work might seem “silly” even as they insist on its seriousness That assessment—that earnestness and humor can coexist—echoes Turner’s metamodern message.
Moreover, Turner’s performance projects attracted international media attention. When LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner created public art events in Europe and the US, they sparked discussions about truth, media, and participation. These projects arguably helped a mainstream audience encounter metamodern themes: for example, participants in #HeWillNotDivideUs had to face the tension of being serious (pledging unity) while also in a media-saturated, sometimes absurd environment. The widespread coverage of these works contributed to the idea of metamodernism as something happening in real time.
In academic circles, metamodernism (with Turner as a key figure) has become one of several proposed “-isms” for the early 21st century. It is often mentioned alongside terms like “altermodernism” or “new sincerity”. Vermeulen and van den Akker’s original 2010 essay on metamodernism, followed by Turner’s manifesto, are now frequently referenced in cultural studies and philosophy. Recent courses and conferences on theory and art history include metamodernism as a topic. In some cases, his ideas have influenced how museum curators and lecturers describe current art: for instance, exhibitions highlighting emotional engagement, awe, or narrative in art may draw on metamodern rhetoric.
Turner’s influence extended beyond theory: he has also spoken and lectured (e.g. at institutions like Camberwell College of Arts and Royal College of Art) on issues of art practice and free speech. In 2023 he made headlines by winning a UK High Court libel case related to online conspiracy theorists; this case (“the free speech trial of our age,” as it was called) brought public attention to Turner’s activities as an artist and activist Although not directly about metamodernism, this episode underlined his role in the intersection of art, media, and politics.
Overall, Turner’s work contributed to a zeitgeist in which sincerity and constructive engagement regained importance in art. Critics have noted that the current generation of artists is often described as both hopeful and cynical a characterization aligned with Turner’s view. His writings helped articulate why sincere action (such as communal performance) might matter even in a skeptical age. By framing this as an oscillation rather than a simple replacement of irony, Turner influenced a more nuanced conversation about post-postmodern culture.
Critiques
As a relatively recent concept, metamodernism has drawn some skepticism. Critics question whether it is genuinely a distinct “movement” or simply a convenient label for various trends. Some have remarked that the term can feel vague or redundant. For example, arguments that artists are once again being sincere could be seen as just the next phase of a pattern, rather than a radical shift. The writer Michael Eden, in a 2018 commentary, noted that the metaphoric “postmodern culture of relativism, irony, and pastiche” was declared “over” by early metamodern theorists, but he also pointed out that the concept sometimes seems caught in “academic semantics” This reflects a common critique: that metamodernism may not offer clear new predictions, but instead repackages familiar ideas (like the age-old dialectic of thesis and antithesis) in slightly different language.
Turner himself and other founders acknowledged that metamodernism is not a rigid doctrine. Vermeulen and van den Akker make clear that “metamodernism itself is not intended as a philosophy or an art movement,” having no fixed dogma or doctrine In the manifesto Turner even mocks the idea of writing a manifesto, calling his own attempt “coherent and preposterous” in equal measure Some scholars therefore see metamodernism more as a poetic “sensibility” than a testable theory. This has led to debates about how useful or meaningful the term is. Detractors argue that being “oscillatory” and “sincere plus ironic” are too general to predict anything concrete, and that many artists have always combined these attitudes in various ways.
Another critique is historical: some historians suggest that the shifts attributed to metamodernism may not mark the end of postmodernism so much as its transformation. For instance, art historian Robert Samuels calls his version of this idea “automodernism,” focusing on AI and networks rather than irony vs sincerity. These alternative theories imply that metamodernism is one of many overlapping narratives about our culture today. As such, Turner's perspective might be seen as one model among several.
In the art world, some critics remain divided on the assessment that irony has waned. While many note a revival of sincerity, others argue that irony is still very much alive, just combined with sincerity in new forms (as Arpultse Magazine noted, irony and sincerity are “not mutually exclusive” In this view, Turner's idea of embracing both is not a radical break so much as a recognition of a long-standing aesthetic strategy (akin to earlier “Romantic irony” or the “New Sincerity” in 1990s literature). Turner’s own writing anticipated this critique by emphasizing that ironically pointing out the oscillation is itself part of the metamodern attitude – a self-reflexive move.
Overall, the challenges to Turner’s ideas are typical of any new paradigm: some praise it as illuminating a shifting mood, while others question its novelty or precision. Proponents argue that it captures a genuine “structure of feeling” for today’s generation; skeptics worry it is more a trend-chasing phrase than a substantive theory. Turner’s contribution, at minimum, is often credited with framing these questions for artists and critics to consider, even if not everyone agrees on the answers.
Legacy
Luke Turner is relatively young and still active, so his full legacy is yet to unfold. However, his impact so far lies chiefly in influencing how people talk about contemporary culture. The term metamodernism has become a permanent fixture in some art and academic circles, in large part thanks to his 2011 manifest and his ongoing writing. The published Metamodernist Manifesto continues to be cited in discussions of new media arts, literature, and philosophy as a succinct statement of the ethos he identified Art history texts and courses sometimes include Turner alongside others (like Vermeulen, van den Akker, and literary theorists of “New Sincerity”) when charting the early 21st century.
Beyond theory, Turner’s collaborative art projects have a lasting presence as case studies in participatory performance. Exhibitions and museums have acquired documentation of works like #ALONETOGETHER and #HeWillNotDivideUs, and they are cited in reviews of contemporary performance art. The Notes on Metamodernism website and the HOAX publication have influenced younger artists who see the blending of text, networks, and community as key to the present moment.
Turner’s legal victory in 2023 also adds to his legacy – it highlights the real-world stakes of online communication, which is one of the issues metamodernism implicitly touches on. By winning against disinformation figures, he arguably demonstrated a synthesis of art, activism, and belief in shared truths. In that sense, his actions reinforced his spoken ideas about sincerity: that defending evidence-based facts and confronting conspiracies is compatible with art and optimism.
In summary, Luke Turner’s legacy will likely be as an instigator of conversation. He did not found a formal “school”, but his idea that we move between hope and doubt continues to shape how educators and artists think about the present. As culture moves into the 2020s, discussions of what comes after postmodernism will likely still invoke Turner’s oscillation motif. The broad influence of his manifesto and related projects suggests that many young artists see value in combining earnestness with critical irony – a viewpoint Turner helped to popularize.
Selected Works
- Metamodernist Manifesto (2011) – Turner's concise prose manifesto defining metamodern principles (oscillation, sincerity, romanticism)
- “Metamodernism: A Brief Introduction” (2014, essay) – A published overview by Turner that expands on the generation’s cultural mode, emphasizing “love of meaning” and example of popular culture
- #TAKEMEANYWHERE (2014, performance video with Rönkkö & Turner) – A live-streamed art project with Shia LaBeouf, involving wandering through Europe under viewer directions. Demonstrated trust and chance in social networks.
- #ALONETOGETHER (2017, performance video with Rönkkö & Turner) – A semipublic event at Kiasma (Helsinki) where collaborators shared personal journal entries as a singing performance of techno music. Explored privacy vs audience.
- #HEWILLNOTDIVIDEUS (2017–2018, performance video with Rönkkö & Turner) – A public art installation/performance in which people spoke or acted a unity pledge into a camera. Initially displayed at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image; became a viral phenomenon (and was later evicted by Shia LaBeouf). This work dealt explicitly with political protest and community, linking Turner's art with formal activism.
- HOAX Magazine (2008–present, co-curator) – An online and print platform for text-based and image art, emphasizing minimalism and poetry. Turner co-founded HOAX (originally subtitled “Hypocrites, Opiates, Apocalypses”) to showcase interdisciplinary artworks that mix spoken word, writing, and visual art.
- Cross-Examination (2025, performance) – A recent piece at Beaconsfield, London, commissioned as part of an event on experimentation. Turner performed dialogue in front of an audience, interrogating conceptual limits. (This work exemplifies his interest in “manifestos” as art practices.)
- Notes on Metamodernism (2010–present, website) – Co-edited by Turner, this site gathers writing by multiple authors on metamodern topics, serving as a resource for the cultural theory. Turner’s own contributions include essays, thoughts on art, and updates on participatory projects.
Each of these works reflects Turner’s focus on interactivity and meaning. The list above combines his theoretical writings (manifesto, essays) with his best-known art projects and initiatives.