We’ve created a monster. This isn’t the first time the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens has paid tribute to GIFs as art, but now they’re asking specifically for GIFs used to express emotion on the Internet for an installation titled “The Reaction Gif: Moving Image as Gesture.” The whole thing is being crowdsourced through the Internet’s foremost GIF experts: Reddit.
The museum’s Associate Curator of Digital Media, Jason Eppink, posted on Reddit that they’re looking to create a “canon” of classic reaction GIFs. No doubt this will make many who aren’t a fan of Internet culture feel, well…
Or even a little:
But come on, guys. Have a heart.
For those of us who enjoy expressing ourselves through regurgitated pop culture, it seems like a pretty accurate way to capture the native language of the Internet. So, if you think you’ve got a good one that they might have missed, you can head over to the Reddit post and leave a comment with your GIF and an explanation of its use that your Grandma could understand.
No, really, that’s what they asked for.
Here are some of our personal favorites to get your GIF mindset going:
Or, you could just head over and play spectator to the endless stream of entertaining GIFs.
The installation will run from March 12 through May 15 in case you’d like to experience the Internet in the physical world.
(MOMI via The Daily Dot, images via Jurassic Park, Community, Seinfeld, Fight Club, The Office, Doctor Who)
- The Internet has also spawned legions of trolls, which is not great
- And its anonymity pretty much makes people feel free to be jerks
- But we it’s also given us lots of cat stuff, like this cat simulator game, so there’s that
