For all the time we’ve spent staring blankly at GIFs, it’s crazy to think that those looping animations could have been hiding coded messages all along. Prosthetic Knowledge put together this “Lenticular Encryption” project to show how illicit info can be snuck into everyone’s favourite image format.
Staring at these with eyes alone won’t reveal their secrets — it takes a little analogue and digital media double-team to make that happen. Angling a lenticular sheet on top of the screen will expose a whole new layer of intel and add another “visual narrative” beyond the straightforward animation.
It’s fitting that it’s currently on display at the Widget Art Gallery, a virtual white-walled room that only exists on iDevices and that “installs” new exhibitions every month. Now I just wish we could retrofit all of these babies with crazy ciphers. [Prosthetic Knowledge]