 
 
 
 
I love these gifs from yesterday and today. I can't think of a single other gif that is actually capable of evoking sadness, made by anyone other than L.M. Would love to see examples if people have them.
There is actually a found gif out there that broke my heart, it's of a tiny gymnast doing somersaults and she does a bad roll. She gets on her feet but then starts stumbling wildly on the mat as if she's damaged her spine. I can't bear to post it.
Oh man. yeah that sounds pretty sad! (also with an element of horror)
You are missing gifs of bruiser digging holes in my back yard, under the deck, as he looks for his master (or an old bone) that he has lost.
There is a really nice gif by Tom Moody here. Not sad, exactly, but evocative in a moving way. I'm not saying this emotive capacity is a necessary criteria for good art or anything like that, but I do think it's something worth considering in the context of online art production.
this gif http://www.gifbin.com/ is sad for the poor reporter. Not so much for the rest of us however.
One of the questions Ed Halter asked in the Net Aesthetics 2.0 panel at the New Museum in '08 was whether there could be sadness in net art. (He seems to think it's all irony and yucks like that soccer ball beaning the reporter---Joe.) I pointed (later) to Guthrie Lonergan's collection of self-published, self-made book covers as an example of unintentional melancholy. I'm too close to the "quantum states helmet" to interpret it very well but I appreciate the feedback. I have been thinking a lot lately about "GIFs that are a legitimate downer."
It's tricky--possibly L.M. doesn't want to post the gymnast GIF not to spare us from sadness but because the reason it's on the Net is all the sadistic laughers out there--who really wants to be a party to that? I see humor as well as purposelessness in L.M.'s running dogs above and am thinking that may be the right wavelength for internet sadness without the corresponding possibility of banana peel guffaws.
I like the banana peel guffaws too. But I agree it's a paradigm that doesn't have to totally rule the day.
Tom is right about my motivations on not posting the gymnast gif, I've never spared our audience from the sight of men wanking with plastic blow-up dolphins, so I'm hardly going to spare them from sadness. And even if I prefaced the found gymnast gif with the background info that the child broke her neck, I can't post it as some sort of found aesthetically emotional object because to me, as an artist, there is something unearned in that gesture.
That said, I still keep that gif on my hardrive and I look at it periodically.
I totally get it. I'm really into schadenfreude, more so than most of my nearest and dearest, but even I have limits. And there's a significant difference between looking and disseminating. Here's a different gymnast gif with a happy ending.
i dont find dogs sad. dogs especially male hounds tend to have the soul vibe. that bb collection is soulful. in my experience, male dogs tend to be less complex than females. sadness for sadness sake in art risks being melodramatic emo button pushing. i never watch mtv scarred because i cant handle it. but i did watch a lot of jackasses because it was funny and reckless self inflicted wipe-out behavior. most of those dudes were pretty charismatic imo. launching manned shopping-karts from ramps, roof to shrub belly flops, good stuff. the teen guy death wish is something that should be shared. it is base attention seeking after all. but some gymnast girl breaking her neck is not what she had sign on for so not so much fun to watch. "hold my beer and watch this..." is signed on for material.
Totally! I loved Jackass. And my understanding that the artists and judges in Bravo's Work of Art had signed on for public humiliation was the reason I indulged in unmitigated enjoyment of the show. However, I also like Tom Green (best) and Sasha Baron Cohen (second best) and Andy Kauffman (the grandaddy). That kind of comedy is definitely cruel, but I approve of it. I also loved Candid Camera and I still like Just for Laughs Gags, and I really like performance artists like Mierle Laderman Ukeles who mess with people's heads and fuck up social protocol.
I also agree that emotional button-pushing in art is often icky and coercive. But I also really like it when artists are able to work an emotive dimension into their art without imposing a "this is how you are supposed to react" kind of narrative. Good artists do it all the time. But it's still a bit rare online.
I hate relentlessly sensitive artists, there's a special room in hell for them that will stream Sarah McLachlan tunes 24/7.
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- L.M. 8-24-2010 5:48 am
I love these gifs from yesterday and today. I can't think of a single other gif that is actually capable of evoking sadness, made by anyone other than L.M. Would love to see examples if people have them.
- sally mckay 8-24-2010 3:33 pm
There is actually a found gif out there that broke my heart, it's of a tiny gymnast doing somersaults and she does a bad roll. She gets on her feet but then starts stumbling wildly on the mat as if she's damaged her spine. I can't bear to post it.
- L.M. 8-24-2010 5:32 pm
Oh man. yeah that sounds pretty sad! (also with an element of horror)
- sally mckay 8-24-2010 7:06 pm
You are missing gifs of bruiser digging holes in my back yard, under the deck, as he looks for his master (or an old bone) that he has lost.
- GMoboLM (guest) 8-24-2010 7:41 pm
There is a really nice gif by Tom Moody here. Not sad, exactly, but evocative in a moving way. I'm not saying this emotive capacity is a necessary criteria for good art or anything like that, but I do think it's something worth considering in the context of online art production.
- sally mckay 8-26-2010 5:29 pm
this gif http://www.gifbin.com/ is sad for the poor reporter. Not so much for the rest of us however.
- joester (guest) 8-27-2010 4:29 pm
One of the questions Ed Halter asked in the Net Aesthetics 2.0 panel at the New Museum in '08 was whether there could be sadness in net art. (He seems to think it's all irony and yucks like that soccer ball beaning the reporter---Joe.) I pointed (later) to Guthrie Lonergan's collection of self-published, self-made book covers as an example of unintentional melancholy. I'm too close to the "quantum states helmet" to interpret it very well but I appreciate the feedback. I have been thinking a lot lately about "GIFs that are a legitimate downer." It's tricky--possibly L.M. doesn't want to post the gymnast GIF not to spare us from sadness but because the reason it's on the Net is all the sadistic laughers out there--who really wants to be a party to that? I see humor as well as purposelessness in L.M.'s running dogs above and am thinking that may be the right wavelength for internet sadness without the corresponding possibility of banana peel guffaws.
- tom moody 8-28-2010 4:55 pm
I like the banana peel guffaws too. But I agree it's a paradigm that doesn't have to totally rule the day.
- sally mckay 8-28-2010 6:41 pm
Tom is right about my motivations on not posting the gymnast gif, I've never spared our audience from the sight of men wanking with plastic blow-up dolphins, so I'm hardly going to spare them from sadness. And even if I prefaced the found gymnast gif with the background info that the child broke her neck, I can't post it as some sort of found aesthetically emotional object because to me, as an artist, there is something unearned in that gesture.
That said, I still keep that gif on my hardrive and I look at it periodically.
- L.M. 8-28-2010 7:39 pm
I totally get it. I'm really into schadenfreude, more so than most of my nearest and dearest, but even I have limits. And there's a significant difference between looking and disseminating. Here's a different gymnast gif with a happy ending.
- sally mckay 8-28-2010 8:00 pm
i dont find dogs sad. dogs especially male hounds tend to have the soul vibe. that bb collection is soulful. in my experience, male dogs tend to be less complex than females. sadness for sadness sake in art risks being melodramatic emo button pushing. i never watch mtv scarred because i cant handle it. but i did watch a lot of jackasses because it was funny and reckless self inflicted wipe-out behavior. most of those dudes were pretty charismatic imo. launching manned shopping-karts from ramps, roof to shrub belly flops, good stuff. the teen guy death wish is something that should be shared. it is base attention seeking after all. but some gymnast girl breaking her neck is not what she had sign on for so not so much fun to watch. "hold my beer and watch this..." is signed on for material.
- bill 8-28-2010 10:08 pm
Totally! I loved Jackass. And my understanding that the artists and judges in Bravo's Work of Art had signed on for public humiliation was the reason I indulged in unmitigated enjoyment of the show. However, I also like Tom Green (best) and Sasha Baron Cohen (second best) and Andy Kauffman (the grandaddy). That kind of comedy is definitely cruel, but I approve of it. I also loved Candid Camera and I still like Just for Laughs Gags, and I really like performance artists like Mierle Laderman Ukeles who mess with people's heads and fuck up social protocol.
I also agree that emotional button-pushing in art is often icky and coercive. But I also really like it when artists are able to work an emotive dimension into their art without imposing a "this is how you are supposed to react" kind of narrative. Good artists do it all the time. But it's still a bit rare online.
- sally mckay 8-28-2010 11:14 pm
I hate relentlessly sensitive artists, there's a special room in hell for them that will stream Sarah McLachlan tunes 24/7.
- L.M. 8-29-2010 12:01 am