Animated GIFs: The Birth of a Medium | Off Book | PBS

GIFs are one of the oldest image formats used on the web. Throughout
their history, they have served a huge variety of purposes, from
functional to entertainment. Now, 25 years after the first GIF was
created, they are experiencing an explosion of interest and innovation
that is pushing them into the terrain of art. In this episode of Off
Book, we chart their history, explore the hotbed of GIF creativity on
Tumblr, and talk to two teams of GIF artists who are evolving the form
into powerful new visual experiences.

Featuring:

Patrick Davison, MemeFactory
TopherChris, Tumblr
Pamela Reed and Matthew Rader, Reed+Rader
Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg, Cinemagraphs

Story Development: Mike Rugnetta, Internet Culture Researcher, MemeFactory

GIFs by:

The Internet. We wish we could attribute all the GIFs we used, but we
aren't even sure if that would be possible!

But...a special thanks to:
http://www.mr-gif.com
@textfiles
http://dvdp.tumblr.com
http://xcopy.tumblr.com
http:///iwdrm.tumblr.com

Please let us know if you see your work and want attribution!

Music by:

Mindthings: http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/mind...
Space Frequencies: http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/Spac...
Casanelli: http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/Casa...
Shamil Elvenheim: http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/shamil/
Kevin Macleod: http://www.incompetech.com

Follow Off Book:

Twitter: @pbsoffbook
Tumblr: http://pbsarts.tumblr.com/

Produced by Kornhaber Brown: http://www.kornhaberbrown.com

• Category

  Film & Animation

[ChuckBartowskiX]

No, it does not. The original creators always referred to it as "JIF".

[Drucifer24]

The guy with the mustache that says it's pronounced with a hard "G" is a willfully ignorant turd that doesn't understand what an initialism is. Yes, we all know what it stands for. Do you know how search engine queries work? Because that's all it takes to figure out how to pronounce it.

[SanguiX SX]

THIS IS ANCIENT INTERNET HISTORY HERE xD

[Wolfgang Ramos]

Hipsters are the authority on animated gifs, apparently.

[RABBIDGamfan]

Well, English has weird pronunciations that are hard to grasp sometimes. :P

[misterwubba]

yo



[bloodspilla55]

There are numerous examples of that rule not applying to acronyms/initiations.

[Recusant2084]

Then I'll give you points for consistency, which is more than I can say for the English language itself.

[Monkeywithbombasstit]

I pronounce all of those with a hard 'g' soo

[Recusant2084]

Like gin, giant, germ, ginger, giraffe, gentle, gerbil, gel, genial, generation, gym, geology, genius, general, gene, gypsy?

[Recusant2084]

Do you say JFEG or JPEG? The "P" is from Photographic (pronounced fotographic.) What about COBOL? Do you say Cah (as in common) Bowl (long O as in oriented) or Koh Ball? How about BASIC? Do you say Bah (as in all) Sick or Bay Sick? PERL? Peril (eh as in extraction) or pearl? SWAT? SwaT (a as in and) or swot? No, because there is no such rule. Besides, the "G" in GIF is silent anyway.

[VeganAK47]

hi there wubbz