gif.local is a gif art exhibit that I curated. It first ran from Sept 6-28th 2014 on Governor's Island, NYC as part of Ingrid Burrington's LittleNets exhibition, which was put on through Eyebeam.

When visitors entered the building, they used their devices to connect to the local wifi network, which took them to the exhibition portal.

What I like about gif.local is that it offers a new approach to exhibiting gif art. I think there's something important about the physical experience of visiting a gallery show; it forces you to appreciate the artwork in a more deliberate way than merely opening a new tab in a browser. There's also the problem of how to display animated gifs in a gallery setting, do you project a rotating series onto the wall, bring a computer into the gallery, or set yourself up with the hardware problem of 20 tiny screens?

I like that gif.local forced viewers to travel to Governor's Island to see the exhibition, and also used the screens we already have on us as the display medium. This turned the artwork viewing into a deeply personal experience, and allowed viewers to spend as much time with the pieces as they desired.