New GIFs – Metaphors in Unfamiliar Rooms

New GIFs – Metaphors in Unfamiliar Rooms

November 24th 2017

I started a new series of animated digital remix collage works this past week. As I launch this post of new works I feel that the holiday time nostalgia is kicking in. I instantly feel like a kid again and the many memories that go along with it start to flood in. Ah yes, the anticipating of the arrival of seeing relatives, traveling in the family car over the NYC bridges and playing endless sports and video games with my brother and cousins. Of course Im leaving out a lot of other things but the video game characters have always stayed with me. Especially from the early 1990’s. I always acknowledged video games as works of art first and foremost and never stopped. I love the NYPL Digital Collection and frequently work with their content for remixing and reusing images in my work. I love to search and discover at random, finding gem after gem and giving my ideas new contexts.

There are so many great creative tools online today. I am talking about both desktop and mobile platforms. Newhive stands out in particularly and I have been generating works and building an archive there for well over a year now. (my feed is here) I have been consolidating many of these digital tools on some of the websites that I use to teach my New Media and Net-Art courses at CUNY and LIU. Check out https://netart.commons.gc.cuny.edu/ and http://art642.com for examples and resources.

The works below have been placed into gilded antique frames. The frames are to give the impression of importance and completion yet the works are not static. They are contradictions and metaphors for the way we may perceive our memories and past. Memories can be kept alive if we keep subscribing to how we retell their stories along with the feelings that can be fueled with them. The game character’s below have been displaced from their familiar environment. They are no longer hostile or about to engage in a fight. They have changed. They are not static, yet they only move in place. Among outdated technologies and works of art, what does all of this say?

This blog post is the second iteration of where the new pieces have been published. Its safe and easy to communicate the works this way. However, Im not convinced this is the best way forward to show this series. it will not be the last application of display. More soon.