Hello everyone!
Here is a link to my final project, a look at animated GIFs as an important component of Web 2.0 culture (even following the propagation of Flash) and an interesting partner to hypertext.
(And don’t worry, there’s only one GIF of my overly-eager face on the project site).
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
May
I’ve always liked GIFs – like your project stated, they’re kind of like mini-movies. They’ve always been a bit interesting and mysterious, in a sense. Like, the first time you see one, you wonder… “How’s that work?” Your project looks great. Cool idea.
BTW, I was sure one GIF in your header was Balki Bartokomous, and a GIF on one page confirmed it for me. Nice cultural reference! I wonder if there are any GIFs for the bibi bobka episode…
Exploring your site was a very ‘retro’ experience for me. I long recall the explosion of animated gifs and indeed am one who see them as relegated to the web 1.0 as you so aptly put it. However, I must agree that they never really went away and still have potential to remediate text.
Animated gifs are fascinating! At least for me. I actually consider that they are becoming a visual narrative genre. The only objection that gifs might have (and maybe is just ignorance) is if there’s a free and accessible tool to create them.
I have zero background knowledge when it comes to gifs, and your project was fascinating and beautiful. I loved the juxtaposition of having the Perfect Strangers allusion and the Robert Frost poem on the same page of your site as examples of gifs. It was super cool. Thank you for teaching me everything I know about gifs!