Friday, February 5, 2016

Homework 2

Friday February 5, 2016
Simple Net Art Diagram is the earliest and most enduring animated GIF for its provocation to participate. It was released to the public domain in 1997 by the two-person artist collective MTAA with the purpose of gesturing an invitation to join a dialogue. The GIF was an illustration of two computers with a red flashing lightning bolt between the two of them. The purpose of this GIF was to pinpoint communication as the core purpose of art. The foundation of this first GIF was the basis for hundreds of Simple Net Art Diagram GIF's to exist. 

Throughout the foundation and development of the GIF world, I particularly found it very interesting that Cory Arcangel's Super Mario Clouds was recognized as one of the most iconic animated GIFs to this day. It was one of the best viewed when titled as a seamless page full of clouds therefore creating the GIF to be incredibly effective with it's audience. 

With the foundation of GIFs being in the late 90's, it does not restrict the formation of such art to only the millennial population. Originally, GIFs were not made with the intentions of being art, they simply provoked individuals who found an artistic interest within that form of expression. GIFs were founded before the foundation of social media rocketed, which is a huge addition to the millennial population. Social media became an expressive outlet, that allowed the GIF art to flourish through posts, eventually find their way to personal blogs, and social media sites such as Tumblr, that are highly GIF based. The millennial population greatly connected to the use and utilization of GIFs through the different forums that they would appear. However, this did not limit the other generations the capability to utilize and learn the methods of GIF making, for personal and professional outlets. 

I believe that success comes from GIFs in the sense of how popular and how many eyes have the ability to see it. Youtube, Tumblr, Blogs, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and many more companies have the ability to reach a variety of audiences through the sharing, retweeting, or reposting of GIFs. For example, the dancing banana GIF that was inspired by a Flash music video created for the Buckwheat Boyz's song "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" has over 26 million views, even though it is a simplistic GIF. Personally, I remember hearing this song and immediately link the imagery of the dancing banana GIF to the song and that connection people can draw with the GIF images. 


On a larger scale, Saatchi is a gallery located in London, England that specializes in providing an innovative forum for contemporary art, especially by promoting unseen young artists or international artists who would rarely be featured or seen in a UK museum. Recently, Google+ teamed with Saatchi in order to promote the creation of modern technology art by producing a new prize competition. Micael Reynaud, freelance designer and stop-motion animator, was a finalist for his pigeon gif within the Saatchi Motion Photography Prize. His particular GIF brought the emotion of life to the simple bird, onto of a rooftop. He utilizes the positioning of the pigeon to create shadows and different elements that enhance the overall appearance of the artwork which drew me tremendously into this form of artwork. 

6 comments:

  1. Ashley,
    I agree with you and like your point about the millennial population. I also think GIFs have the ability to be art, even though they weren't viewed this way when they were first created. Technology has allowed GIFs to grow because more people have access to these social media outlets that provide them. Individuals identify with GIFs, so I also think they should be utilized both personally and professionally.

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  2. Ashley,
    I agree with you, successfulness of a Gif does come from the popularity. Gifs add a character to a piece of work. Personally, every time I see a funny Gif I too connect it to something. Then when I see that something I automatically think of the Gif. They have this weird way of bringing a smile to peoples faces.

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  3. I like what you said about GIFs and millennials. I think that they art/ can be art and that we as the millennial generation identify with more because of the accessibility we have to them.

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  4. I like what you said about GIFs and millennials. I think that they art/ can be art and that we as the millennial generation identify with more because of the accessibility we have to them.

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  5. Hello Ashley, it was intriguing how Cory Arcangel chose such an iconic game element as his GIF. Then again, because it's so iconic that it's remembered till now. It's still entertaining to know how another medium helped in the creation of a simple yet captivating GIF.

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