Japanese Art Collective Turns Gallery Visitors Into Dancing, Downloadable GIFs

Call me narcissistic, but I've always secretly wanted a screen saver of myself dancing or doing something in motion (unfortunately, I'm not coordinated enough to do parkour). A video would be too much, but a pixilated or animated version of myself could definitely satisfy the craving. Rhizomatiks, a Tokyo-based art collective, have made this fantasy a- possibility by turning gallery visitors into 3D polygonal GIFs that they can download and bring home, post gallery-visit.

Rhizomatiks are known for providing the technical support and stage production for Japanese techno-pop supergroup Perfume, but this project is more subtle than their work with the gaudy teen idols. The team had a gallery exhibition last week at the Tokyo Opera City Tower in Nishi-Shinjuku, Tokyo, called "Rhizomatiks Inspired By Perfume" where they turned visitors into GIFs through captured dance data and some basic 3D scanning and animation stylization.

Why take a gallery brochure when you can take yourself home in digitized form? The Rhizomatik website even includes an interactive feature that allows you to click on various posing guests and zoom in on them and speed or slow their movements. Now that's the type of next-gen souvenir that makes a lasting impression.

@zachsokol