A cultura do GIF: reconfigurações de imagens técnicas a partir dos usos e apropriações de narrativas cíclicas.

Abstract

This dissertation studies the cyclic circumscribed images in digital archives GIF (Graphic Interchange Format). GIF is an extension type used to store pictures as static, linearly animated or cyclically animated. The main objective is to analyze the production of contemporary visual culture based on the exploitation of its potentialities, from the uses and appropriations of GIF images. The developed method is based on literature review from the empirical subject to the peripheral topics in order to understand the relationship between image and Culture. Subsequently, the theoretical discussions are articulated to the analysis of the images and their contents. The technical aspects of GIF are approached from a historical view by Laurent Mannoni, about the cyclical narrative that defines the shape of these images animation, Lev Manovich reflections’, and finally by the dissertations and theses of Brazilian Universities based on the technical aspects of the of digital image (and GIFs ). Questions regarding to the content of the images are worked from the concepts of Vilém Flusser based on codification of symbolic systems through technical images and, also from the semiotic discussion of Roland Barthes based on the rhetoric of the image (aided by Jacques Aumont reflections based on reading and perceiving of images). At last, the semiotic theorizing about the production of meanings in the imagetic speech are used as a reference for the analysis of cases, that elucidate the constitution of existing imagery languages in GIFs, from the appropriation and uses of the existing discursive forms. The overlap between the theoretical reflections and practical analysis allows the identification of the characteristics and effects of GIFs in everyday life, justifying the intensification of its uses in the contemporaneity, when more sophisticated digital forms may had replaced it.