Monday, November 27, 2006
spacer.gif {ART}
http://www.spacergifart.com
A site made about an invisible piece of (ex)essential webdesign:
The concept is prevserving an aspect of digital design that has been depreciated as technology advances. It draws your attention to the importance of something that never really seemed that important before, especially as the majority of people wouldn't even know was a spacer.gif was, what it is used for or how to use one.
The site is written to parody art websites, with the kind of language you would expect on a website marketting art works, complete with installation instructions.
Similarities to minimalism can be seen. The construction of a website has been stripped to the one thing that held the structure together. It seems strange that a complex, functioning website could fall apart if this one file, of empty information, 1 pixel by 1pixel, was deleted. The importance of this is highlighted by taking it from the code and placing it in the position of a high art object: putting it on a wall in a frame. The way they are presented is like an artwork, in particular a series of prints (the idea is that you print out the space.gif and place it on the wall.
This website follows the kind of humour often included in net art pieces, where only the "elite" will comprehend the "joke". Some people would not understand the importance of a blank square, they will see it as "art gone mad".
There is also the irony in suggesting this piece should be "printed". With conventional CMYK colour printer, there is no such thing as white ink, so nothing would print.
I like the concept of this work - basically taking blankness as it's subject, similar to my work.
A site made about an invisible piece of (ex)essential webdesign:
What is a "spacer.gif"?
The spacer.gif is a means, employed by web designers, of keeping table based layouts from collapsing in on themselves. The spacer.gif was once a valuable tool in a net world governed by the interdependence of content and layout. However, to the contemporary high-efficiency web designer, who employs css formatting and layout capabilities, spacer gifs are largely an obsolete and unnecessary tool. The independence of content from layout has come, and spacer gifs, as a concept and as digital objects, are disappearing.
The concept is prevserving an aspect of digital design that has been depreciated as technology advances. It draws your attention to the importance of something that never really seemed that important before, especially as the majority of people wouldn't even know was a spacer.gif was, what it is used for or how to use one.
The site is written to parody art websites, with the kind of language you would expect on a website marketting art works, complete with installation instructions.
Similarities to minimalism can be seen. The construction of a website has been stripped to the one thing that held the structure together. It seems strange that a complex, functioning website could fall apart if this one file, of empty information, 1 pixel by 1pixel, was deleted. The importance of this is highlighted by taking it from the code and placing it in the position of a high art object: putting it on a wall in a frame. The way they are presented is like an artwork, in particular a series of prints (the idea is that you print out the space.gif and place it on the wall.
This website follows the kind of humour often included in net art pieces, where only the "elite" will comprehend the "joke". Some people would not understand the importance of a blank square, they will see it as "art gone mad".
There is also the irony in suggesting this piece should be "printed". With conventional CMYK colour printer, there is no such thing as white ink, so nothing would print.
I like the concept of this work - basically taking blankness as it's subject, similar to my work.
// posted by Jade @ 7:12 PM 
