Illustration by Erik Carter. Screenshots from Vine users Alona Forsythe, Brandon Bowen, Dems, imanilindsay, MRose and Sionemaraschino.
Anyone else notice the large number of GIFs being produced for Jenna Wortham’s column on digital culture for The New York Times Magazine? By large, I mean two, but that’s a lot in these parts! These GIFs aren’t made with fine art in mind, but they also aren’t the amateur GIFs made from free software known for its defaults. These are a new breed of GIF; the graphic designer GIF.
The image above illustrates Wortham’s column on Borecore—a new teenage fad in which teens livestream themselves being bored. I like this GIF, because it literalizes the idea of “the cloud” by placing vines in the sky. The dreamy surreal aesthetic similary suggests the cloud; we often conflate the mind with the openness of the sky.
Anyway, all of this is to say, illustrator Erik Carter effectively communicates the acts that define borecore through this single compelling image. For this reason, I deem it a success.
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