GIFS That Keep On Giving

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on May 4, 2011 4:40PM

Ah, the animated GIF: the winky, blinky, rinky-dinky format most likely to take you for a spin down Memory Lane, aka GeoCities circa 1997. The Graphics Interchange Format was in fact introduced by CompuServe in 1987. It's still going strong, adorning Facebook profiles and banner ads around the whole world wide web. But an art gallery?

Indeed. The folks at The Octagon in Wicker Park decided that "the bastard child of early motion picture technology and most pesky annoyance generator" deserved its own gallery show, and for one night that's exactly what it's getting. TWEEN is a one-night event, this Saturday, May 7. A slew of artists, designers, curators, writers, and art historians, including Chicagoistas Steven Pate and Kevin Robinson, will be showing off GIFS that they've collected and created. A 15-inch "TWEEN SCREEN" will even display the animated marvels on a scale never before seen (except perhaps by frighteningly creepy nerds). Multiple computer monitors will also be set up throughout the space, all displaying stuff like this.

The show is free. And in case you can't make it, yup, there will be a tumblr.

TWEEN is May 7 at THE OCTAGON gallery and screening space, 1318 N Milwaukee, Apt. 300, 7 p.m. - 10p.m.