.gif Reading(s) Response
It’s very interesting reading about and tracing the history of how the .gif came to be and how, while it technically functions in much the same way, its use has changed so drastically as widespread technologies have advanced. Beginning with the .gif’s use as small decorative animations to make web-pages more appealing or to be used as loading messages, to its use as a digital format for artists to use to display and distribute new works, the looping aspect of the format comes across as central to how it has been used and what animations/works exploit the fact that it is displayed endlessly. Indeed, as the .gif has evolved further and become heavily used in day-to-day communication as technology as advanced even further, much of the emotion of the animations that people share with each other still comes from how the context and meaning of characters and scenes from our favorite movies and TV shows changes when taken and turned into these endless loops.