GIF-ed cultural heritage

This method asks participants to engage in the visual and ludic process of creating GIF pieces (Graphic Interchange Format). These can be photographs and reproductions of works from both the known and unknown collections. This method enables participants to get familiar with open digitised archives, in an active, even performative way. By manipulating images instead of only looking at them, users experience them in different ways and learn about the origins and historical context of particular images. Even though the method is often used as a pure PR by museums and galleries, it can be used to intervene with subaltern or marginalised perspectives. What this requires is setting an issue related to a particular marginalised knowledge and perspectives or groups, and asking participants to intervene in archives and collections through GIF by making statements about these groups.