The Internet has become the intangible grounds for a new medium of art to flourish and develop: the GIF.
The GIF, known technically as the graphics interchange format, is a file that enables a palette of 265 colors to become animated and has recently been recognized offline in prestigious art circles.
“They are mostly for entertainment. Most of the ones I’ve seen are just funny,” said Marley Mumford, a freshman in biochemistry from Utah. “My gut reaction about them being considered art is ‘that’s ridiculous’,” said an anonymous psychology major.
Most GIFs are used online for low-brow humor, but there are creators and artists using the file format to make meaningful images. They hope to be in the professional world.
Rebecca Mock, a Brooklyn-based illustrator has had her animated work used for the online publication of The New York Times. She has added a degree of subtle and tasteful animation to her illustrations that have been paired with “Times” articles and placed her on similar footing with photographers, according to Wired’s writer Kyle Vanhemert.
Additionally, Forbes’ staff writer Katheryn Thayer relates that a digital art auction was held at prestigious Phillips auction house in New York City. “This auction put a price on media that haven’t been highly valued before, but also demonstrated digital art’s place beyond the online galleries of Tumblr and the Digital Art Museum.” Some pieces were sold for as much as $2,000.
Some may question GIFs worth, but Professor of Visual Arts Jay Merryweather, who has a background in both fine arts and design, said, “It is as valid as any other form of art. What are the standards that we make the qualifications for a piece of artwork? Is it something that somebody enjoys, is it something that is merely based on the tastes of the culture around it? Those are pretty sweeping questions for the art world.”
Merryweather said his favorite GIFS are cinemagraphs, a looping clip of an image. Merryweather went on to say that cinemagraphs are generally very well composed and the idea is that you can create a perceived infinite movement of an object.
Merryweather agrees that most GIFs are for humor, but that doesn’t discredit the medium as a possible art form. “Paint is one method of disseminating an idea, pixels are another way.”
Brittany Hennis, a senior in graphic design from California, also recognizes the basic attribute of art to convey ideas through images. “I think that visuals express and communicate better than just words. There are so many more words in a visual, especially if it’s moving,” she said.
GIFS represent the latest in artistic creativity.