Real world situations are subtley exoticised fodder for pop songs and Instagrams, blinking like the eye of God. App logos never looked so creepy. These come from Arjun Srivatsa, who generously made us GIFs for our Art F City Roast awards last year.
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Some comments from social media “chat”:
http://artfcity.com/2015/01/02/gif-of-the-day-arjun-srivatsa/ what is the point of these gifs
wow those are so nice
very soothing to look at
but what is the point
blue tape is always funny
yeah i guess we are supposed to chuckle at blue-taped instagram whatever
and unexplained piles of coconuts
interesting comparison between 1st and 3rd world but perhaps just a macbook-tumblr ‘other’ness fetish ?
I think the 1st and 3rd world comparison is what Whitney was getting at in her comments. 3rd world lives look simple and restrained when we see them on instagram or hear them sung about on itunes.
I think that’s a valid interpretation, though for me, these are still a bit of a head scratcher. The art making decisions are almost too restrained to be meaningful. If, in the end, this is really about 1st and 3rd world lenses, what are we talking about? I don’t know.
That said, I don’t agree with all the comments from social media. Blue tape is painters tape, so I’d wager this is meant to gesture to art making or installation. Why the blue tape over an instagram a transparent circle over an instagram logo though? Not sure, unless it’s merely to indicate that the tool is frequently used by artists. It looks like the sun?
Then there’s the collage of particle board, cardboard, itunes, and coconuts. Perhaps the randomness is the point? Dada? I really can’t figure out why the itunes logo is cut out so we can see water running behind it.
why did you size down the first gif? kinda sucks cus it doesnt really show the full gif loop cycle so it’s really jarring.
We just plunk the GIFs on the front page and wordpress does what it will with them. It should be the same size though. I’m on my phone right now but will reload when I get home.
more comments from social media “chat”:
oh nvm lol that is him himself in the first gif
it could still be a macbook-tumblr ‘other’ness fetish
even if the artist is the “other”
although it could be self-expression (self-othering?) and my comment could be seen as insensitive
or perhaps artfcity othering in their selection of gifs
or artist catering to that without any context for the coconuts pics
what is “social media chat”?
that’s not me in the first gif. it’s a yella neer vendor in rural tamil nadu.
i took these pictures with a pentax camera when i visited india in 2011. at the time, instagram was steadily fetishizing SLR camera filter aesthetics. only a few of my friends in india had smartphones, but i remember seeing a change in youth culture from how it had been when i grew up in bangalore. this was also the around the time i started using dump.fm, when i began making gifs.
also, seems like the first gif was altered to be sized down (right?)
http://dump.fm/images/20130121/1358751165461-dumpfm-arjununcle-instagramgif.gif
The top GIF was originally 2.3 MB, 62 frames – large for a blog front page. The AFC version is 700 KB, 16 frames. Also, the AFC version inserts the blinking purple rectangle at the bottom — an artifact of cutting the GIF short?
In the original, there is a long, slow, color morph on the disc with instagram “vintage camera.” In the AFC version it sort of winks yellow and red.
So It appears we’re discussing a different GIF from what the creator originally made. I’m not sure it matters to the questions re: travel photos, “the other,” and insertion of the graphics of the current “hot” social media site into this image, Dadaist or otherwise.
Why is the app logo creepy? Why is it here at all (If hardly anyone in India had Instagram at the time of the photo, and the photo wasn’t taken with a phone)?
I don’t know why it’s creepy either, but apparently someone does, so what’s the point of your question, woody?
Got wood? If I hadn’t asked the questions, no one would know the GIF was altered.
Arjun, “Social media ‘chat'” is a virtual environment where people discuss the changing role of art in the smart phone era.
yeh i found the comments on your favelog on dump 😛
Oh, right, forgot to unfav those. Done.
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