Jazer Giles does it all. Based in the Pioneer Valley, the latest artist in our Showcasing the GIFted series works in everything from video to music to ballet. His GIFs offer a launchpad into an immensely creative mind. Laugh, stare, and fall into the infinite loops. Then be sure to check out Giles’ many other endeavors.

Take: Do you use a particular moniker for your GIF work?
Jazer Giles: Jazer Giles is my given name and I use it for all of my creative work.

via GIPHY

T: Where are you from?
JG: I have been living in Northampton/Amherst since 2002. I grew up in Southwick, Massachusetts.

via GIPHY

T: What got you started making GIFs, and why GIFs rather than something else?
JG: I started making GIFs as teasers of my video projects and computer animations. I like the format because I think GIFs exemplify current media consumption on the internet, requiring the distillation of interesting/beautiful/funny/thought-provoking/important content into a relatively short series of images. Also, they autoplay.

via GIPHY

T: What do you do when you’re not creating GIFs? (i.e. other jobs)
JG: I am adjunct faculty in the Music Department at the University of Massachusetts, where I teach interactive electronic music and composition. I create and perform experimental music and video, often in collaboration with choreographer Barbie Diewald and composer and contrabassist Salvatore Macchia. I am a founding member of the Royal Frog Ballet performance collective. I also teach piano and accordion lessons and work at Hampshire Bicycle Exchange as a bike mechanic.

via GIPHY

You can follow Giles on Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, or at his website.

The post Showcasing the GIFted: Jazer Giles appeared first on Take Magazine.

Take turns to our own stomping ground for this edition of Showcasing the GIFted. In the spotlight is western Massachusetts’ own Sabato Visconti. Visconti is a new media artist whose work ranges from photojournalism to glitch art, which heavily influences his unique style in the GIF format.

Visconti graduated from Amherst College; his glitch photography has been featured in Time, WIRED, and AI-AP’s Latin America Fotografia Anthology; and his other work has been exhibited around the world in places such as the Tate Britain, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, and NewHive.

via GIPHY

Take: What moniker do you use for your GIF work?
Sabato Visconti: Sabato Visconti, although I often use the handle Sabatobox for my social media pages.

via GIPHY

T: Where are you from?
SV: I’ve been living in Western Massachusetts since going to college in the area, but I am originally from São Paulo, Brazil and I grew up in Miami, Florida.

via GIPHY

T: What got you started making GIFs, and why GIFs rather than something else? 
SV: Glitch art was my starting point. I began making GIFs as a way to present my work glitching different kinds of digital media. The GIF format’s ability to loop a relatively small amount of frames makes it ideal to capture or animate glitches. Coming from a background in film and photography, I’m drawn to GIFs because it connects a variety of different mediums that were traditionally separated. A GIF can be a photograph, but it can also be thought of as a form of cinema.

As a social practice, GIFs can also be considered as an evolution of language, as people use GIFs to communicate on social media or through their devices. The GIF has a unique and ambiguous poetics that defies categorization. As a result, not every platform allows GIFs to be displayed in all their glory, which ultimately colors the culture these platforms are fostering. Regardless, the GIF has proven to be a resilient format in light of an ever-changing media landscape.

via GIPHY

T: What do you do when you’re not creating GIFs? (i.e. other jobs) 
SV: I am an artist who works with glitch art, post-photography, new media, and video art. My practice examines the materialities of digital media and the structures surrounding them in order to misuse, corrupt, break, and subvert them. The glitch is very much a mark of our era, as many of us feel like subjects trapped in systems designed to fail us, as subjects witnessing a slow ecological collapse, or as subjects whose identities are socially and politically excluded. While that’s my main thing, I still have to work for a living. I do freelance photography work (fashion, photojournalism, retouching) as well as video production and digital content management.

The post Showcasing the GIFted: Sabato Visconti appeared first on Take Magazine.

We’re headed back to Vermont for our next installment of Showcasing the GIFted. In the spotlight today is Jonah Nigro, a Burlington based artist and designer. He graduated from Bennington College in 2016, but had his first freelancing animation job with Perrier when he was only a sophomore.

Nigro’s work connects the visual and visceral, and Variety included him on its 110 Students to Watch list in 2015. Since then he’s gone on to do work for clients such as MTV, CÎROC, and even tried his hand at directing a music video.

Take: Do you use a particular moniker for your GIF art?
Jonah Nigro: My moniker for this particular project is Popsicle Illusion!

via GIPHY

T: Where are you from?
JN: I grew up in the Putney/Brattleboro area of Vermont.

via GIPHY

T: What got you started making GIFs, and why GIFs rather than something else?
JN: The GIF format of continuously looping frames is very appealing to me. It allows you to take a single instance of animation and turn it into its own complete work of art. Growing up watching animations I was always blown away by the small details that are just on screen for a couple of seconds and GIFs finally allowed for those moments to be celebrated.

via GIPHY

T: What do you do when you’re not creating GIFs? (i.e. other jobs)
JN: I just finished my first directing project doing a music video for Flux Pavilion. I also do live visuals for shows when I can and dabble in software development on the side.

via GIPHY

You can follow Nigro on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr or his website.

Top image: Leg Flower Pattern. All images courtesy of the artist

The post Showcasing the GIFted: Jonah Nigro appeared first on Take Magazine.

Following our introductory installment of Showcasing the GIFted, we’re turning our attention to Chris Piascik. You will probably recognize the unique organic style of his daily drawing project, and you’ve almost definitely used his playful and irreverent Facebook stickers.

After earning his BFA and MFA from Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford, Piascik worked for award-winning graphic design studios around the Northeast before switching into a career as an illustrator. Some of his past clients include Coca-Cola, the Village Voice, Boston Magazine, Warner Music Group, Converse, and Nickelodeon.

Trump Dump. GIF courtesy of the artist.

Take: Where are you from?
Chris Piascik: Sturbridge, Massachusetts.

T: What got you started making GIFs, and why GIFs rather than something else?
CP: I started making GIFs as an experiment within my daily drawing project. It seemed to be a natural evolution in my work. I love GIFs, but I don’t exclusively make GIFs. Static illustrations are still what I do the most.

Fall. GIF courtesy of the artist.

T: What do you do when you’re not creating GIFs? (i.e. other jobs)
CP: I’m an independent illustrator. Sometimes that involves GIFs.

Go Ride. GIF courtesy of the artist.

You can follow Chris Piascik on Twitter and Instagram, and can also find him on Tumblr and through his website.

Top image: Pattern (cropped), all images courtesy of the artist

The post Showcasing the GIFted: Chris Piascik appeared first on Take Magazine.

Since the internet has integrated itself so firmly into our daily lives, it’s nice to step back now and then and recognize its unique artistic output. With that in mind, Take reached out to GIPHY to help us highlight some talented New England GIF artists. First up in our showcase of New England’s most GIFted is Burlington, Vermont-based artist Douglas Schatz. His work embraces the best elements of the image format with mesmerizing results.

Take: Do you use a particular moniker for your GIF art?

Douglas Schatz: I go by a few different handles online, but I’m most well known as GucciSoFlosy and whenthennow.

T: Where are you from?

DS: I’m from Nashville, Tennessee originally, but I’ve lived in Burlington, Vermont for the past four years. Before that I lived in western Mass. after graduating from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.

T: What got you started making GIFs, and why GIFs rather than something else?

DS: I started making .gifs on the (now dead) chatroom website dump.fm. Dump was a project made by Ryder Ripps that combined the old school community of internet chatrooms with the new age image sharing and remixing (“talking with pictures”) that happens on Twitter and Tumblr. I was just hanging out there around 2010 and fell in love with what the other artists were making and wanted to make stuff like that, so I started teaching myself how to make them and asking the other artists for help. I like using the .gif format because it’s a unique digital medium—it’s got native alpha support (it can be transparent), its limited color palette creates beautiful dithering and moire patterns, and it’s one of the few file formats that continues to be supported even as the web changes and modernizes. I also think that humans are just naturally drawn to repetition, so the seamless loop of the .gif is sort of mesmerizing.

T: What do you do when you’re not creating GIFs? (i.e. other jobs)

DS: I do freelance video editing, motion graphics, and video effects work. I like to game and tinker with my computer, and when I’m not at my computer, I’m usually playing ultimate or watching soccer or just hanging out with my S.O.

T: Where can we find you around the web?

DS: Instagram: @pdschatz, Twitter: @thuglas4life, Tumblr: whenthennow, ello: @guccisoflossy; websites: http://pdschatz.com, http://freegucci.info

Top image: Static image from a GIF. All images courtesy of the artist

The post Showcasing the GIFted: Douglas Schatz appeared first on Take Magazine.