Monthly Archives: March 2012

GIF art

Young artists turn to GIFs as an art medium.

We all know and love the animated .gif. Formerly the bane of 1990s Web site design, they’re now being parlayed into viral hilarity. But they’re also being parlayed into art.

Why now? For one, the first generation of artists born and raised on the Web is just coming of age. For those people, animated .gif’s aren’t just the stuff or Internet cheese, but also a sentimental thing, with all sorts of connotations to beloved, bygone bits of technology.

These artists don’t revolve around galleries. Their stuff lives in the wild, on the net, at places like Rhizome8-Bit Today, and Internet “surfing clubs” like Nasty Nets, which are basically club houses for net artists that are almost incomprehensible to outsiders.

Here’s four GIF-ted artists we love:

Michael Bell-Smith is about as close to a veteran net artist as you can get, having shown works at big-time places such as the New Museum in New York:

Michael Bell-Smith

Michael Bell-Smith

Harking back to the days of online, Web chat handles, many net artists go by fake names. Videogramo, AKA Francoise Gamma, is a Spanish artist obsessed with the faded look of 1980s cyberpunk classics such as Blade Runner, and you can see it in his art. His sprawling, disorienting Web site isn’t really a Web site, as much as a curated, online gallery:

Francoise Gamma

Like a lot of net artists, Out_4_Pizza, AKA Laura Brothers, constantly revives old-school, 8-bit aesthetics in her work–basically, a way of making the drawings look aged, in a way that’s sometimes impossible on the Web. But her art takes that into the realm of goth–always a popular subject for artists raised in the 1980s and 1990s:

Laura Brothers

Laura Brothers

Finally, some works by artist/designer David Ope:

david ope

david ope

david ope

Most Interesting Libraries of the World

The Central Public Library in Vancouver, Canada

The Central Public Library in Vancouver, Canada, was designed by the architect Moshe Safdie as the winner of a design competition. Photography by lightgazer Flickr.com

The Astronomy Library of the University of Utrecht, Holland

The Astronomy Library of the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, displays also some historical instruments. Photography by (Erik) Flickr.com 


The Royal library Black Diamond in Copenhagen

The Royal library Black Diamond at the waterfront of Copenhagen owes its name to the black granite from Zimbabwe used for the facade of the building. The name
was used by the public first and has been adapted officially later
. Design by the Danish architects Schmidt, Hammer & Lassen. Photography by madcrow Flickr.com



New York Public Library is established in a magnificent building with astonishing grandeur and gorgeous artworks. Photography by an untrained eye Flickr.com



Dusk at the Bristol Central Library which celebrates its centenary in 2008. Photography by *Firefox Flickr.com

The futuristic, award-winning Peckham Library in south London has been designed by the architects William Alsop & Jan Störmer. Photography by ~~ zorro ~~  Flickr.com



This round room called the Rotunde is the main reading hall of the City Library of Stockholm. Photography by arndalarm Flickr.com

Library of the Faculty of Philology of the Free University of Berlin

The library of the Faculty of Philology, The Free University of Berlin, is built by the famous architect Norman Foster. Photography by Sven Werkmeister Flickr.com

Suzzallo library of the University of Washington, Seattle WA

The reading room of the Suzzallo library of the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, was built in 1926 and has a Gothic interieur. Photography by Cap’n Surly Flickr.com

Library Parabola is the reading room of the British Library and is said to be the birthplace of the Communist Manifesto. Photography by Sifter Flickr.com

The Domed Reading Room of the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. Photography by waltonics Flickr.com

The Library of the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, which is listed as a World Heritage Site. Photography by cuellar Flickr.com

The Library of the University of Delft, The Netherlands, designed by the Mecanoo architects, Delft. Photography by rutger spoelstra Flickr.com

The Stockholm Public Library is housed in rotunda building designed by the Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund. Photography by Éole Flickr.com



Library of the Durch Parliament, The Hague, conserving all ever said and written words in the parliament.  Photography by Menno Manheim  Flickr.com 

This will blow your mind

Awesome Artwork of Andrew Mar (2/2)

Andrew Mar is a very talented artist with great skills in both traditional and digital art. Hope you enjoyed his amazing artwork.

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