I believe I fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. I feel both that first-word art is difficult to judge without something similar to compare it to, and last-word art can sometimes feel like taking an original idea and just redoing it with current technologies or thought processes. Relating this to pop culture, the first person to start a trend doesn't become popular until more people jump on the bandwagon, and the last person to jump onto a trend is usually either ignored or belittled for being late (as the trend has probably died down).
Technology has a huge potential to shape culture. Since it is always advancing, people are always experimenting with what it can do and creating new trends, adding to pop culture. With more advanced technology, more difficult tasks become easier, and the first to accomplish those tasks become popular and set new trends. The reverse is also true. Culture has a large impact on technological development. Especially in politics, if a group of people feel especially strongly about a specific current event or movement, they will create the technology and means to push their ideas to the masses and get their point across. Further, as new trends become popular, people will create the technology necessary to participate and make a name for themselves in those trends.
If we make work that is technologically novel, it is always expected that the same work can be done easier and faster after more technological advancements. The one thing that is constant about technology is change, and it will keep on improving in some degree, and making previous technology relatively outdated, slow, and inefficient. That is why, when using technology to produce things like art, the audience is not necessarily for the future - it is for the current society. It shows off what current technological inventions can do, and inspires people to make better technology that can do the work better.