Almost forever: Finnish artists plan exhibition of 1000-year GIF animation

Online culture magazine Hyperallergic reports that Helsinki based artists Juha van Ingen and Janne Särkelä of the FixC cooperative are preparing an exhibit of a 1000-year long animated GIF loop.

The work is titled AS Long As Possible (ASLAP). It features 48,140,288 frames as an homage to composer John Cage’s As Slow as Possible. Cage’s work has been playing continuously on an organ in a church in Halberstadt, Germany since 2013. The music will continue until 2020.

Each frame lasts around 10 minutes. ASLAP presents a minimalistic white counter of each frame’s position in the loop until the year 3017. The font is blocky and pixelated. It resembles the FixC cooperative’s Teletext art. The GIF will restart once finished.

Preview prints in Helsinki

Preview prints of the ASLAP project are currently on display in Helsinki. These prints are at FISH Gallery in the Kallio district until September 26.