Additionally, the way that GIFs portray gestures makes them inherently social. Most GIF artists say that their GIF art leads to unique exchanges with their audience. “There’s a little bread crumb trail with Tumblr and with GIFs so you can actually see who’s seeing it and see who’s liking it and appreciate it,” Fandango says.

For Brown, who has spent years making and producing graphic products, GIFs have provided a novel platform for sharing his artistic experiments with others. “I don’t know what to do with them except share them with friends,” Brown says. “I spent years [in] a business making and producing graphic products, and I can't figure out how you sell something that’s basically free once you put it on the internet.”

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But Brown has another idea that will put his GIFs on a screen that is at once more and less private––one that seems to cast him as a traveling artist for the technological age, broadcasting a new and valid art form to the public. “I thought of taking a wagon around downtown New York with a generator and a projector and just showing them on walls.”

—Staff writer Hayley C. Cuccinello can be reached at hayley.cuccinello@thecrimson.com.