Tag: instagram

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Artist imagines what Instagram would look like on Windows 95

Windows 95 had a lot going for it: its iconic startup sound; its soothing teal background; Internet Explorer in its earliest, purest form; and my personal favorite, the Paint program. Today, if you’re ever feeling particularly nostalgic, you can run Windows 95 in your browser. (True to history, attempting to use Internet Explorer will cause the emulator to crash.) But the emulator reveals a conspicuous absence: no Instagram. Yes, Instagram only launched in 2010, and as a free mobile app rather than a Windows 95-friendly .exe program. But what if it had come into existence two decades earlier? Russian graphic…
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8-bit artist makes new autobiographical GIF every day

This article contains flashing images. /// Speaking to Vice’s The Creator’s Project, Italy-born, Shanghai-based illustrator Ailadi says “I like the combination of PETSCII 8-bit game aesthetic with subjects of common daily life.” She’s referring to her PETSCII series, an art project based around producing one new 8-bit gif per day, fittingly named after the character set from the line of 8-bit home computers Commodore produced in the ‘70s. “I mostly draw at night, just before going to sleep,” she tells Vice. “And the subject of it represents something about the day that just passed: something I did, I saw, that…
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You’ll miss Instagram’s squares when they’re gone

Instagram announced on Thursday that its signature 1:1 aspect ratio was no more. An update for Android and iOS clients will allow users to upload full-sized portrait and landscape photos. The square will remain Instagram’s fundamental unit, but its value as a cultural currency has been devaluated. Without the hassle of using third-party apps or aggressive cropping to fit images into a square frame, one can only expect the proportion of oblong images in Instagram feeds—currently estimated at 20%—to increase. As The Verge’s Ariha Setalvad points out, this is good news for tourists at the notoriously tall Eiffel Tower. It…
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Brutalism has found a second life in Minecraft

The case for preserving brutalist architecture requires some strange contortions. Defenders of gems like London’s Robin Hood Gardens or the Orange County Government Center must claim that buildings whose charms are derived from their heft and imposing strength are at risk and in need of our protection. This may be a necessary measure, but as with having your parents declared unfit to manage their affairs, it comes with a sense of loss. There are, of course, more tangible losses. In February, after a prolonged debate, the building that was once Chicago’s Prentice Women’s Hospital was demolished to make way for…
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Glitch Wizard makes corrupting media as easy as applying Instagram filters

Glitches aren’t just a subcategory of digital art anymore. Adopted and popularized in various forms by everything from Marble Hornets to Game Jolt, the aesthetic has become the latest social media craze to transform average Joes with an iPhone and a Wi-Fi connection into true artistes. And while that may sound like a jaded take on the versatile Glitch Wizard app, it isn’t. It’s a celebration of art’s increasing accessibility, and the chaotic and ephemeral beauty of the internet’s user-generated content. there really is a fair amount of artistry involved  The Glitch Wizard app empowers users to glitch out every piece…