GIF Six-Pack: Now with Sound

The age of the silent GIF could be over. Increasingly, GIF artists are moving their practice to Instagram, where they have greater freedom of size, length, and sound. The short, grainy images were and are endearing, and forced real creative ingenuity as the GIF art form came of age, but artists like Scorpion Dagger, Traceloops, and Zolloc are growing self-sustaining audiences that demand new facets of creativity, and for that they’re slowly transitioning their focus to the short video platform.

Some collaborate directly with artists to promote their work, like Zolloc’s partnerships with Mirror Mask and Drew x Hill, while others mix classic songs into their artwork to give them new meaning—what Scorpion Dagger did to the Weather Girls’ “Raining Men” immediately comes to mind. 

That said, Instagram by no means makes the GIF obsolete. A well-placed reaction GIF can make or break your slack game, and some suggest they might be becoming their own, separate language. But for innovation in the art of the loop, look no further than today’s six-pack, which features work from Anne Horel, Kyttenjanae, and Kidmograph, along with the aforementioned artists. The future of the GIF sounds awesome.

Want to see your GIFs in our weekly Six-Pack? Email beckett.mufson@vice.com to submit your work.

Related:

GIF Six-Pack: Female Artists You Should Know

GIF Six-Pack: Hand-Drawn Animation Is Our Salvation

GIF Six-Pack: The Desert of the Mind

GIF Six-Pack: The Squishy Surrealism of Jelly Gummies