April is the month of fools, and we can think of no better way to celebrate than with the pinnacle of Internet ephemera: The Animated GIF. The Current Sea is a GIF design team in Los Angeles that focuses on the confluence of the Analog and the Digital. They create whimsical digital chimeras, often employing Analog techniques like film photography and collage. This month, they will be displaying a series of GIF art on the theme of Transhumanism to celebrate the glorious foolishness of our present era, as we all try (and sometimes fail) to find our bearings in the new wilderness of the Digital Age. Installation Magazine x The Current Sea are proud to present: #GIFofFools!

 

The Current Sea, The Persistence of Memories of the Persistence of Memory Animated GIF,  2014 500x500 pixels
The Current Sea, The Persistence of Memories of the Persistence of Memory, Animated GIF, 400 x 400 pixes, 2014

 

Holy feedback loop, Batman! The melting clocks of Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory have become so ubiquitous, it’s hard to think about time slipping away without envisioning his surrealist landscape. We created this GIF as an homage to the master with a wink and a nod towards the never-ending commodification of his greatest work in the latter part of the last century.

Time seems to stand still here in the fulcrum of civilization: we have the entirety of human experience and endeavor at our fingertips with the push of a button, and yet we tremble as we gaze into the abyss ahead of us: No one knows what the future holds for us as we merge ever-so-quickly with technology, our own creation. But the choice is ours: we can stand still, frightened animals seized by inaction in the face of change, or we can dance and laugh at the edge of the abyss.  We can take, remix and remake everything that has come before us, thumbing our nose at reverence as we reach out and claim the Analog ideas we wish to take with us as we cross the spirit bridge into the Digital… Our clock tells the time of the Eternal Now.

 

Featured image © Installation Magazine

* The original size of The Persistence of Memories of the Persistence of Memory is 500 x 500 pixels