The Giff: A Glimpse Into its Legacy

In the realm of digital art and expression, the Giff stands as a testament to the dance between simplicity and complexity. Born from the binary pulses of early internet culture, this looping image format emerged as a canvas for emotion and wit.

The internet is very much like a quarter, there are two sides that work together to form a complete digital network of information.  

In the early days of the internet E-Mail was was the main purpose of the internet, a digital telegram that allowed communication to happen worldwide much like the telegraph of old but digitally through a network connected to the phone lines.  The e-mail was invented in the early 1970's and for about 20 to 25 years this was about as much as the internet could do. Let's call this the Heads side of the internet. 

It was not until the early to mid 1990's in which the World Wide Web was invented, a simple and easy way for a web browser to display images and text and sometimes video.  These led to an expansion of bandwidth and more technology improvements. Let's call this kind of internet the Tails side of the internet. 

The Tails side of the internet led to websites like Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and countless other websites to open up allowing people to get connected to the internet and get access to anything they wanted because there is a website or video to explain it.  The website development code and tools such as HTML, or Java, or Bootstrap allows people to embed a video onto a website or blog post such as this one.  A close relative to website development is the dvelopment of apps on our smart phones. This is one major side of the internet, the ability to show and share videos and audio and fast speeds on any device on or computer screen anywhere on earth.

The ability to display images and text and not video is the Heads side of the internet, and there are countless letters of text and images shared on the internet on countless websites.  

The Giff.... Is the third side of the internet coin that people forget exists.  A coin has little indentations on the side that gives it a little depth and allows one object to display two things.  It's basically a repetitive pattern but if you spin a quarter fast enough it could look as if it is moving. That's the Giff. 

A Giff technically is a looped image like the old arcades of the turn of the 20th century.  Essentially it is the digital version of just the internal framework of a camcorder or video camera.  A video camera does not actually take a video, it takes a series of pictures at 15/30/60/120/240 frames per second and then plays those images in a sequence, our eyes detect it as a continues movement as an illusion of sorts. 

A Giff can be displayed as a looped digital image creating the illusion of movement within an email.  Because email and websites are two sides of the same coin that work together there are some things that one can do but the other can not. 

An email can not display a video embedded into it, and the website development tools allowed in an email are ancient compared to the digital tools used to create modern websites.  For example the HTML code to embed an image in an email, or a row and column involves creating a table like it's an excel spreadsheet and coding it into the email.  

The same sort of thing exists in modern websites but it is all done digitally via the software that nobody ever thinks about or notices. 

The Giff is essentially the workaround that someone created in the 1990's to a problem of low bandwidth and the inability of email to embed video. 

Which makes the Giff, in Internet age a Horse and Buggy, in the age of space travel of 2024.  Which is kind of what I like about the Giff. 

Here is some Space Travel Jetsons type thing of Artificial Intelligence writing about the GIFF.

Origins: Lost in Pixels

The Giff's genesis traces back to the early days of the internet, where bandwidth limitations birthed a need for compressed visuals. Like a painter constrained by a limited palette, creators distilled moments into pixelated loops, each frame a brushstroke in a fleeting narrative.

Evolution: Connection Amidst Chaos

As technology evolved, so did the Giff's role. No longer confined to pixel art, it ventured into realms of humor, emotion, and cultural critique. From viral memes to poignant social commentary, the Giff became a universal language, bridging gaps in expression with its succinct yet potent messages.

Impact: Off and On, Lost and Found

The Giff's impact is a tale of contrasts—moments captured and lost, emotions fleeting yet eternal. It serves as both a mirror and window, reflecting our collective psyche while offering glimpses into worlds beyond our own. In its looping simplicity, the Giff transcends barriers, connecting souls across digital landscapes.

Conclusion: A Mosaic of Moments

In the grand tapestry of digital history, the Giff remains a vibrant tile, both distinct and integral. Its journey from humble origins to cultural icon mirrors our own evolution—a dance of creation and connection, lost and found, in the ever-shifting sands of digital time.

 

The Giff on this Blog Post, a Digital Creative Process:

1. I took the photo of the Golden Gate Bridge about 10 years ago. And have had it the logo of my business/website for about 3 years. 

2. Several years ago I purchased Final Cut Pro and didn't know what  Motion or  Compressor was. 

3. Several months ago I purchased  Motion, tried to figure it out but it was too complicated and sort of forgot about it. 

4. Then I was messing around with it one day, and later that day I was reading my Italian language book on  Books.  I noticed I had manuals to other  programs and stuff in my library, I had forgotten  gives you the free book.  So I downloaded the  motion one and in 10 minutes learned more then I did by several hours of watching YouTubers and not knowing what to do. 

5. I created this simple animation with my logo being in 3d in  Motion, sent it to Compressor and voila, a Giff was born that I could use in emails.