Article:

Das GIF. Geschichte und Geltung eines Formats aus dem Geist des Tanzes

This article explores the specific mediality of the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) out of the interrelation of its technique, history, aesthetics and the practices associated with it. For the GIF is far more than just a technical standard for the representation of moving images or animations on the Internet. Rather, it has enabled a net-based image culture that places it not only at the center of today's net culture, but of the Internet age as a whole. The article shows that the Graphic Interchange Format, due to its technical affordances, some of which date back more than 30 years, was and is designed to lead an existence as a networked object and develops a related history of this web-based image culture, which can be understood as dance culture.