In July 2017, a research conducted by business data company Domo stated that Giphy, the most used online platform for posting and sharing GIFs, serves no less than 690,000 pictures a minute. Is it any wonder? In the last two years, Facebook and Twitter introduced intuitive systems to share GIFs on their platforms – a move that accelerated the popularization of a digital object with unique features that a few years ago was especially appreciated among communities of less structurally fixed online platforms as Tumblr and reddit.
GIFs have been accepted and adopted by new users who rely on animated pictures thanks to their planned pervasiveness in their digital communication habits. The practice of Nicolas Sassoon (b. 1981), a French artist who makes art with GIFs since 2011, suggests creative strategies to exploit the features of this format in order to make works that couldn’t be made with any other medium.
He started with what is broadly understood as Gif Art (2D looped animations) and in these years questioned the spatial nature of his works, placed his patterns within 3D computer generated landscapes and also the way human movement animates a fixed picture.
LOST HOURS, Nicolas Sassoon, 2016
http://nicolassassoon.com/?fbclid=IwAR0FaVt-c6e_vzeQQVfVlx_-c7hqHlTzGKPGW55eioswP8H8GG1rEhT7fwE
Nicolas Sassoon’s work has not only motivated me in using digital technologies to manipulate/create my art but has also made me interested in GIF art, possibly pursuing it in the future.
