Remember Geocities? How about Angelfire? They were once vast treasures of Internet lore, projecting sparking graphic interchange format images into our hearts and minds. But GIFs have come a long way since then, running the gamut from illustrated animations of old guys fishing to near HD quality moving images so subtle they almost feel as if they were dreamt, all in the space of a decade. What's important, though, is how these images have not only evolved over time, but how they've become a unique art form of their own. Originally viewed as cheesy clip art, GIFs are now a center piece of the post-Google digital art world, where everything from Thanksgiving dinners flying across Mariah Carey's face to a recounting of the Rupert Murdoch pie incident are a welcome commentary on the current state of media in a society where democratized production tools have enabled anyone to do anything.

The guys behind Physical Gif aren't just screencapping French Films and uploading them to Make A Gif, though. (Not like we've done that before...) Rather, they flipped the entire medium on its digital head and attempted to replicate the fluttering loop of a GIF in real life. This could be deemed impossible by a skeptic naysayer, but the power of video would prove you wrong, as the Physical GIF guys prove below:

Cool, right? Yeah. It is. Especially because all of the times I've "hearted" a GIF on Tumblr, I've never once thought, or even contemplated the idea, that a certain set of digital images could translate into a physical moving object and function in nearly the exact same manner. Consider me so blown away that I wouldn't be averse to using the term "true artist" in relation to this project. Though, of course, Ryder Ripps already beat me to it.