I’ve never been a big fan of GIF’s until I learned to make one about two years ago. I didn’t realize how easy they were to make using Photoshop, but then again my GIF’s were very basic, consisting of no more than 40 frames in total. However I doubted the full extent of the medium until a few days ago when I stumbled upon a craze of websites which were created solely for these animated wonders. GIF’s were formerly the bane of 1990s Web site design, but are today being parlayed into viral hilarity and furthermore, into serious thought-provoking pieces of [free] conceptual art.
So why now? For one, the first generation of artists born and raised on the Web are coming of age, and for them, animated GIF’s aren’t just a simple laugh, but a sentimental thing with all sorts of connotations to beloved, bygone bits of technology. Internet artists are shared, their products live in the wild, on the net, at places like Rhizome, 8-Bit Today, and Internet “surfing clubs” like Nasty Nets, which are basically club houses for net artists that are almost incomprehensible to outsiders.
During my search, I came across a few amazing veteran net artists, whose GIF’s are out of this world and do an extra bit more than just a static freeze frame repeat. First up is Michael Bell-Smith who uses digital forms, such as animated gifs, lo-res images, and references the aesthetics and semiotics of common computer programs such as Powerpoint and Web sites such as YouTube to explore contemporary visual culture and how it is mediated through popular technologies.By remixing and reinterpreting digital sources, Bell-Smith reconsiders the cultural meaning of these materials in a “post-personal computer, post-Internet, post-Google” age.
Gate to Night/Gate to Day
Revolving Door
bio source
image source
So why now? For one, the first generation of artists born and raised on the Web are coming of age, and for them, animated GIF’s aren’t just a simple laugh, but a sentimental thing with all sorts of connotations to beloved, bygone bits of technology. Internet artists are shared, their products live in the wild, on the net, at places like Rhizome, 8-Bit Today, and Internet “surfing clubs” like Nasty Nets, which are basically club houses for net artists that are almost incomprehensible to outsiders.
During my search, I came across a few amazing veteran net artists, whose GIF’s are out of this world and do an extra bit more than just a static freeze frame repeat. First up is Michael Bell-Smith who uses digital forms, such as animated gifs, lo-res images, and references the aesthetics and semiotics of common computer programs such as Powerpoint and Web sites such as YouTube to explore contemporary visual culture and how it is mediated through popular technologies.By remixing and reinterpreting digital sources, Bell-Smith reconsiders the cultural meaning of these materials in a “post-personal computer, post-Internet, post-Google” age.
Gate to Night/Gate to Day
Revolving Door
bio source
image source
hilitehead 
elaborate?