Night at the Mouseion

Apulian Red-Figure Oinochoe

An ancient Apulian Greek red-figure oinochoe (Type VIII) with a seated female on a rocky outcrop holding a cluster of grapes in her right hand and a basket in her left hand, a band of olive leaves above.

Joe Schildhorn/BFAnyc.com

About Last Night | Art in Residence

On a Saturday evening in the City of Light, the worlds of art and fashion collided, as they’re won’t to do, for cocktails at the residence of the American ambassador to France, which was transformed into a one-night-only art exhibition.

Charles Silver has worked at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) since 1970, first in the film studies center and then (and still) as a curator in the department of film. His recent exhibitions include Roman Polanski, The Great War: A Cinematic Legacy, and An Auteurist History of Film, a screening series that lasted for five years. In his writing, including books on the history of the Western, Charles Chaplin, and Marlene Dietrich, Silver seamlessly blends his personal relationship to film with humor, behind-the-scenes tidbits, and analysis. 

There’s no better way to wrap up a busy year than to announce a showcase of awesome GIFs made from open materials. Over the past couple of months we’ve had tons of fun running the GIF IT UP competition with our good friends at DigitalNZ.

All the entries have now been judged by our judges, Adam Green, Editor of the Public Domain Review, and Brian Wolly, Digital Editor of the Smithsonian Magazine.

Adam and Brian judged the entries on:

Coherence with category theme

Thoroughness and accuracy of entry (including link to source material)

Creativity and originality

Thanks so much to those who participated, and congratulations to our GIF IT UP winners!

To browse all of the GIF IT UP entries, visit the competition gallery here or on imgur.

Here are the winners.

Animals

Lillie Le Dorre, from Wellington, New Zealand, wins this category with her precocious typing dog. Source material courtesy Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga.

Planes, Trains, and Other Transport

Darren Cole, from the United States, wins this category with his moving (and smoking!) monowheel patent. Source material courtesy the National Archives and Records Administration.

Nature and the Envornment

Richard Naples wins this with his elegantly fluttering butterflies. Source material courtesy Smithsonian Libraries via the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Your Hometown, State, or Province

Jason Varone’s mesmerizing map overlay of Brooklyn wins this category. Source material courtesy the US Government Printing Office.

GIF Using a Stereoscopic Image

Ron Leunissen in the Netherlands takes this award away with this stereoscopic image of the Penna. Cavalry at Newport News, en route to Porto Rico. Source material courtesy Boston Public Library. 

World War I

The Othmer Library in Philadelphia wins this award with their wagging WWI enlistment dog. Source material courtesy the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources via the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center.

Open

Nono Burling takes away the award for the open category with this romantically dancing couple, created from the photographs of Eadweard Muybridge. Source material courtesy University Southern California Libraries.

Peoples Choice

Jessica Pyburn’s beautiful snowflake animation is the winner of the People’s Choice Award for the GIF with the most Tumblr ‘notes’, 381 in total. Source material courtesy Smithsonian Institute.

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GIF IT UP: FULL GALLERY

Looking for the rest of the GIF IT UP submissions? Check out the competition gallery here or on imgur.

Of course we’re thrilled our animated velocipede won in the transportation category — but we had great time just seeing all the submissions.  Congratulations to all the winning contestants, and thanks to everyone who entered!

(And thanks especially to digitalpubliclibraryofamerica and digitalnz for such a fun challenge and all their combined efforts!)