gifs and gesture

At the 2011 Armory Show, Rhizome is revisiting an idea they presented in 2006 as Gif show, and exhibiting animated gifs. This time, the gifs are for sale (Lauren Cornell discusses it here). 

I haven’t followed the history of gifs.  I was never a 4chan troller.  I don’t know much about net art.  So I defer to the surf-masters and mistresses: Paddy Johnson wrote “2010 is the Year of the Animated Gif”.  She wrote that in 2010.  In 2011, I got interested.  The first time I noticed the intelligent use of an animated gif was this poster for a Reitveld Final Design Show.  It seems to simulate the design/printing process, the weighing of layers, proposed iterations; it brings more information with less trouble.  The gif illusion above is by Dan Fisher (via); others are more understated, evoking nostalgia for a certain media texture, like this packaged static, or the ambience of dust in the air.  

The real strength of the animated gif, though, is representing human movement. That’s why you see so many of sport bloopers, prat falls and money shots (see Oliver Laric’s comment on the Zedane headbutt gifs), and obsessed-over dance moves like those of Creeping Thom. 

But there’s something even more evocative about the minimal movement of a golf clap,  the slight changes (blowing hair, shifting light) that are just enough to remind one of the character’s style of movement. iwdrm.tumblr.com shows some of these moving frames. 

Be sure you read this excellent piece that Brad Troemel wrote last week: Obsession with Compression. 

And finally, look at this heart-melting melodrama between Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman (from Spellbound I think).  Woah. This is where gifs win the web: with a silent glance and shifting weight.