Class Visits to GIPHY & Planeta HQ in NYC for some Animated VR!
This past spring and summer semesters of 2017 I took my MFA & MA Graduate students from LIU Post to visit both the Giphy & Planeta Headquarters in NYC.
Giphy & Planeta are two of the most awesome places on the planet, no seriously. They collaborate regularly on various projects that are pushing the boundaries of both the animated GIF, GIF culture, AR & VR. Have you been bitten by the GIF, Augmented or Virtual Reality bug yet? If not, you are missing out!
Giphy curators, the super gracious and humble Dani Newman and Ari Spool gave us a wonderful presentation about Giphy and how it has grown over the last five years. We also got a tour of the facility and a walk through the MOGA, the first GIF Museum in VR – The Museum of GIF Art.
If you haven’t been to the MOGA yet, why not? (click the link above) Download the app, get yourself a portable VR viewer from MONA and jump in. It couldn’t be any easier to get started in VR. We learned foremost what the future potentials of the animated GIF, VR & AR can be and how it will all expand. In our case as a New Media course, we were curious about accessible digital and electronic art making platforms. Some of these resources were added to our class resources page on our website here.
From Planeta, aka To.Be, Nick Dangerfield, an amazing host and also so gracious, discussed the ongoing collaborations between the two companies and shared some of their recent projects. We were blown away. Nick guided us through their space and gave us a talk about what they do at Planeta. They host various events in the space that exceed AR & VR. Music is a big part of their space. We got a tour of both the MOGA and a beautiful photography exhibition that they built in VR. This was the first time many students in the course experienced VR so watching their reactions was priceless.
How will animated GIFS, AR & VR play a role in the upcoming New Media in art courses at LIU Post this coming spring and summer of 2018? Stay tuned!
