The Physics of Nothing; The Philosophy of Everything

acecalhoun is worthy of a few jams for this one:

“Lastly, and perhaps most prolific, is the mash-up GIF. These GIFs are comprised of a combination of all the previous forms. The mash-up is THE most inner-looking species of GIF. It is possible to track the cultural development of some of these. Often though, the source of any original correspondence becomes completely lost in the play of images.”

<><><><>this is my jam<><><><>

In two short essays – written in 1933 – Walter Benjamin argues that primitive language emerged in magical correspondence with the world. The faculty we all exhibit in childhood play, to impersonate and imitate people and things loses its determining power as language gradually takes over from our “non-sensuous” connection with reality. In a break from Saussurian linguistics, Benjamin decries the loss of this “mimetic faculty”, as it becomes further replaced by the “archive of non-sensuous correspondences” we know as writing.

To put it in simpler terms… Where once we read the world, the stars or the entrails of a… ]]> Wed, 25 May 2011 05:21:34 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/text/ideas/the-doctrine-of-the-similar-gif-gif-gif http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/a-guide-to-enjoying-and-making-your-own-gif-art You can satisfy your low-brow GIF cravings on sites like 4chan or the countless GIF-glorifying Tumblrs like GIF Party and Fuck Yeah GIFs. A step above is the image-based chat site dump.fm from artist Ryder Ripps, whose community no doubt benefits from the artistic ties of its creator, yielding content that is more conceptual and refined than the aforementioned Tumblrs (and has even spawned exhibitions of its own). Then there’s the ambitious ANI GIF project from Daniel Rehn and Sarah Caluag, which presents monthly GIF exhibitions online and is working towards an Animated GIF Biennial (in the real world) slated… ]]> Thu, 19 May 2011 11:50:02 -0700 http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/a-guide-to-enjoying-and-making-your-own-gif-art http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS7QvOX8LVk&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Thu, 19 May 2011 01:51:45 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS7QvOX8LVk&feature=youtube_gdata http://www.slate.com/id/2270819/ GIFs (the name stands for graphics interchange format and can be pronounced with either a hard or soft G) began life in the mid-'80s, image files so efficiently compressed that sluggish Internet connections (which is to say, every connection back then) could download them speedily. When most people use the term GIF today, however, they mean it as shorthand for animated GIFs. Animated GIFs are synonymous with the Internet's mid-'90s, pre-Flash era, when individuals and major corporations alike festooned Web sites with flickering borders, banners, and graphics, all playing on tight, endless loops. More recently, animated GIFs became key chintzy… ]]> Tue, 17 May 2011 02:46:40 -0700 http://www.slate.com/id/2270819/ http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/cinemagraph-stillness-with-a-twist.html I admit it. I'm a junkie for animated gifs.

The animated gif has a deservedly mixed reputation. It's a vestige of the early web, a grainy reminder of badly animated banners ads or captured weirdness, 7-8 frames with a limited palette and abrupt transitions. However, like many other old media formats it's remerging, more refined, grown-up and with a new purpose in life. And, as with records, film and other old/new media, obsolescence has been freeing, allowing the gif to exist in a way that's as, if not more, interesting than the way it was originally used. ]]> Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:07:53 -0700 http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/cinemagraph-stillness-with-a-twist.html http://artcritical.com/2011/02/28/gif-and-take-dump-fm-where-registered-users-post-and-modify-animated-images/ Dump.fm is a digital version of the old Surrealist genre of the exquisite corpse, a “show and tell” for the polymorphously perverse. The art of dump.fm is genuinely interactive. Social relations are inherent to the entire art making process for these artists, rather than just getting tagged on when a conventional, art world artist begrudgingly begins the promotional stage for their work. The creators of dump.fm have allowed users to post images by pasting URLs into a box or uploading them from users’ computers. There is a convenient interface that allows users to post stills from webcams that dump.fm users… ]]> Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:05:08 -0700 http://artcritical.com/2011/02/28/gif-and-take-dump-fm-where-registered-users-post-and-modify-animated-images/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC0sR5_NTFo&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:49:49 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC0sR5_NTFo&feature=youtube_gdata http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEAObel8yIE&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Fri, 24 Dec 2010 12:51:36 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEAObel8yIE&feature=youtube_gdata http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrKgyY5aDvA&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Wed, 08 Dec 2010 09:05:17 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrKgyY5aDvA&feature=youtube_gdata http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOBCMoDGGZU&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Tue, 12 Oct 2010 04:02:00 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOBCMoDGGZU&feature=youtube_gdata http://www.artfagcity.com/2010/10/07/the-year-of-the-animated-gif/ 2010 is the year of the animated gif. They are everywhere. Tumblr’s Three Frames, a site that posts only gifs drawn from movies on a daily basis is recommended to me by students virtually every time I give a lecture. Fuck Yeah Gifs, and Gif Party are... ]]> Tue, 12 Oct 2010 02:47:31 -0700 http://www.artfagcity.com/2010/10/07/the-year-of-the-animated-gif/ http://www.artfagcity.com/2010/10/07/the-year-of-the-animated-gif/ 2010 is the year of the animated gif. They are everywhere. Tumblr’s Three Frames, a site that posts only gifs drawn from movies on a daily basis is recommended to me by students virtually every time I give a lecture. Fuck Yeah Gifs, and Gif Party are also popular. Images on group artist-run blogs like Nasty Nets and Spirit Surfers have always had a keen interest in the file format and have custom software to better display them. No one does the job better than Dump.fm on the image platform front though, which likely explains the frantic production amongst their… ]]> Tue, 12 Oct 2010 02:47:00 -0700 http://www.artfagcity.com/2010/10/07/the-year-of-the-animated-gif/