Institute For The Future

Gifs, clearly the future of all communication for all of mankind. Seriously

The gif (graphic interchange format) was introduced in 1987 by Steve Wilhite (who knew?)! But gifs are just beginning to find their true usefulness.

yup...

 

The gif is quickly taking over as the future of communication, for advertising to cultural commentary and maybe even community organizing. Gifs are like the haiku of the internet, a way to express complex emotions and thoughts through a simple animated image often lasting only a millisecond, on repeat.

I, for one, welcome these innovative and delightful uses of gifs. My favorite current use of this old, but new, tool is a Tumbler called #What Should We Call Opera, which focuses on… you guested it, opera! (Thanks to colleague Jason Tester for finding it.) Using gifs the author of this Tumbler has translated opera, a fairly elite and how brow art form, into a commonly understood language of funny animated clips.

If at first it doesn’t make sense, just scroll through a few pages and open yourself up to your first reaction to the gifs. Besides having a guaranteed laugh, eventually you'll begin to sense the bigger story of opera, and the authors perspective on the art form. 

After spending about 15 minutes viewing the gifs of this Tumbler I learned more about Opera than I have in the past 15 years. Did you know Houston Opera ran the first ever mariachi opera?

How delightful to be able to 'read' about opera and laugh all the way through! 

While gifs tend to lean towards the cheeky side of internet memes and pop culture commentary, the future is a wide open plane.  Imagine the power of gifs for supporting marginalized communities.

We often talk about humor as a key component to nonviolent action, how might gifs open up a new front of nonviolent communication and action?

How might gifs open up new possibilities for illiterate and connected communities? Out are the old drawings of how best to take medicine; in are new gifs that simply show you what to do, with humor, and hopefully culturally relevant animations and memes.

How might we even use gifs to merge the world of oral tradition and the social internet?

I don't know, but the future of the gif makes me feel something like this...