Second GIF Series “The Situation Room” Opening at MoMI this Friday

If you’ve been to the Museum of the Moving Image in the past two years (and if you haven’t, you definitely should go asap!), you’ve been greeted by projections of GIFS inside the snug space of the visitor elevator. It’s part of the Museum’s partnership with GIPHY Arts, and the first time the display will be changing is this Friday, November 8 for its second installation “The Situation Room.”

The exhibit was named after the Situation Room in the White House, created by John F. Kennedy in 1961, in order to further ensure real-time information and communications in times of crisis.

“Today, few of us can say we have trouble receiving information,” says Curator Lindsay Howard. “Information abounds, but interpretation falters. The elevator at Museum of the Moving Image, with its eerie quiet and unreliable cell reception, provides a context to take in new animated GIFs by artists who imagine information and entertainment unfolding in new ways. They offer interpretation for our glut of information.”

Work by Carlos Alfonzo Sanchez, Sam Rolfes, Heather Phillipson, Borna Sammak, Molly Soda, and Eva and Franco Mattes will be showcased over the next year, with each artist being on display for two months.

The first featured work is Carlos Alfonzo Sanchez’s lookit (part of which can be seen above). Sanchez is an artist and graphic designer based in Queens, whose multimedia artworks explore “camp, authorship, and self-disclosure within the public/private borders of digital landscape.”

The GIFs will also be published on GIPHY.com, though of course we recommend seeing them in person!

If you want even more info, there will be an artist talk and opening reception on Wed, Nov 13, 6:00–8:00 p.m.

36-01 35th Ave, Astoria, NY 11106

Did you enjoy the first installation? Will you be checking out the new one? Let us know!