Robots do not sweat. Computers do not sweat. Iphones also do not sweat. Until we become cyborgs, humans will not be both digital and sweat. Until that day in time, we have only the online gallery Digital Sweat, “a platform for digital artists to explore sexual and erotic themes.” For the gallery’s first exhibition, also titled Digital Sweat, over 30 digital artists have created GIFs and JPEGs for the standalone site. We’re going to be looking at these GIFs over the next week, and like the critics that we are, we’re taking the critical GIF to the next level of critique.
With Digital Sweat, we’re curious: Does the vertical scroll format benefit the exhibition? Why a standalone website? Why are many of these GIFs the same size? Can you make sexy, erotic work without pulling out a dick? These are just a few questions we’re asking.
In this, the final Digital Sweat-edition, I’m going to pull up several of the remaining GIFs and address some questions that have yet to be answered.
Does the vertical scroll format benefit the exhibition?
Back to defaults, we experience sites in a mostly up-to-down fashion, so there’s nothing at fault with vertical scrolling per se. But I would have liked to see the the scroll used more as an organizing principle, whether chronological or thematic. We see that at the beginning of the exhibition, before the organization unfurls a little. The exhibition begins with rainbow-striped sperm by Davidope, followed by Claudia Maté and”Hot Bae,” her 2015 creepy-hot upgrade to the dancing baby GIF of the 1990s. As a beginning, that makes sense. Like the other themes that emerge, though, they’re not followed through entirely; two long-haired brunettes after one another, two iPads after one another.
Can you make sexy, erotic work without pulling out a dick?
Yes. See Rick Silva, discussed on Wednesday. Not that dicks should never be used with GIFs; V5MT’s perfectly timed, hi-def, comic book, gridded, tribal cock rings, lipstick, and dick (or dildos?) GIFs wouldn’t be as mechanically sexy if it weren’t for the visual similarities between a shiny dildo and a shiny lipstick tube.
“The too constant use even of good things is hurtful,” the saying goes. All genitals are good, but only in good measure.
This mantra applies just as well to overly popular tropes in GIFs like smiley faces, nude anime girls, rainbows, kaleidoscopic effects.
Why are many of these GIFs the same size?
No clue, but it might just be the software. But some variety to scale would benefit future exhibitions.
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