The Animated Gif Exhibition

The gif has been a much-loved staple of online moving image since its inception in 1987, more or less defining the look of the internet in the mid-1990s – how could we forget all those garishly shimmering pixelated mastheads? Less well-known is the phenakistoscope, the first device ever to give the illusion of movement to still images. Pieterjan Grandry’s The Animated Gif Exhibition in Antwerp merges these two technologies to produce analog gifs that exist in the physical world. Expect nodding kittens, beach scenes and the aforementioned shimmering effects.