Animated Gif Art by Jamie Martinez

The animated gif is an artifact of bygone eras in web design, though many of us gnash our teeth when coming across the pesky relics and kvetch that they should be banned as avatar icons on sites such as Twitter, where the jangly movement almost feels like a nonconsensual affront. Not everyone looks at a gif and thinks that 1998 called and wants its HTML back. Maybe that’s just us. Artist Jamie Martinez sees the gif as a medium that deserves an artist’s exploration (arguing that until now, no artist has had anything to do with animated gifs, at least in public). In his 2009 animated gif series, Martinez takes the gif to a place somewhere between retro photography and old 3-D postcards, with a collection that is contemplative, moody, wistful and strangely provocative.