I vividly recall my early days exploring the internet in the mid-90s. It felt like a realm of boundless discovery. Clicking on a link was always an adventure, a step into the unknown, full of surprises. The internet back then wasn’t so serious; it was more like a playground, brimming with unexpected delights.
In recent years, I’ve been focused on crafting interactive online experiences that recapture that sense of surprise and joy, prioritizing simple smiles above all else. No clients, no social media metrics, no SEO strategies, no user logins, no brand building, and certainly no profit goals – just smiles. Smiles are my motivation, my currency. Many nights, I find myself intensely focused on my screen, writing code, picturing how to transform the often-unexpressive faces of seasoned web users into beaming expressions of pure joy.
On my website, Fuzzy Wobble Dot Com, you’ll find several projects fueled by this “smiles-as-currency” approach. Today, I want to share one of my personal favorites: GIF DANCE PARTY. The name itself hints at the fun that awaits.
The animated GIF, a format that loops short video clips, dates back to the late 1980s. However, when GIF DANCE PARTY started in 2012, animated GIFs were largely relegated to distracting banner ads and the fringes of the web. Tumblr was an exception, being the only mainstream platform where GIFs were truly embraced as a form of expression.
My fascination with Tumblr and animated GIFs was growing rapidly at that time. I sensed an opportunity to elevate the animated GIF, especially the Dance Animated Gif, from its niche corner of Tumblr and place it into a more universally enjoyable context. This spark of an idea led to an intense eight-hour coding session, resulting in the initial launch of the GIF DANCE PARTY website. This platform empowered visitors to create and share their own digital dance celebrations.
Despite my then-developing coding skills, the site functioned remarkably well. As is often the case in web development, all the essential components of the site had been developed and refined many times before. With some strategic Googling and digital “glue” to connect the pieces, the concept became a reality. The codebase was sound, but a significant hurdle remained: transparent GIFs were scarce. Transparent dance animated gifs, crucial for the project’s vision, were even rarer. After extensive online searches, I only found four – hardly enough for a respectable online dance party.
To expand our collection, I enlisted the help of friends to undertake the painstaking task of removing backgrounds from GIF dancers, pixel by pixel, frame by frame. This collaborative effort generated the collection of transparent dancers featured in the first GIF DANCE PARTY release. Now, years later, the GIF DANCE PARTY website boasts a collection of over 120 iconic dancers, ready to bring any digital party to life.
Over the years, GIF DANCE PARTY has attracted millions of visitors from across the globe. The inherently captivating nature of the dance animated gif, combined with the familiar and inviting context of a party, resonated deeply with internet users. I even included a selection of dancing cat GIFs for added amusement. GIF DANCE PARTY continues to circulate online; it even graced the front page of Reddit again on November 2, 2015, prompting one user to comment:
Alt text: A Reddit comment praising GIF DANCE PARTY, highlighting its fun and engaging nature within the online community.
The project was enthusiastically received by my colleagues at IDEO. Inspired by its success, we decided to create our own IDEO Boston (now IDEO Cambridge) GIF Dance Party using a green screen. This was a rewarding experience, maximizing the “smile-to-effort” ratio with a project that could have easily been dismissed as frivolous if not for the supportive and creative environment around me.
However, a somewhat ironic outcome of this project, born from a desire to generate smiles, was that I rarely got to witness those smiles directly. I briefly considered using webcams and facial recognition to count smiles, perhaps even replacing the typical “like” button with a smile counter (though I suspected this might deter visitors!). The only real way to experience these smiles firsthand seemed to be through a real-world GIF DANCE PARTY installation.
To bring this vision to life, we envisioned using projectors, 3D cameras, and significant amounts of code to transform partygoers into dance animated gifs. These digitized dancers would then become part of a dynamic visual spectacle, projected for everyone to see. The GIF DANCE PARTY VJ and the party attendees would collaboratively create an immersive, otherworldly digital dance floor experience.
My usual “Googling-and-digital-glue” approach was clearly insufficient for a project of this scale. I put out a call for creative coders, and an exceptional team responded: Matt F., Wes T., Joe S., and Matt G. For many Saturdays, often in less-than-ideal states, we tackled the considerable challenge of bringing GIF DANCE PARTY to a physical installation space using C++ and OpenFrameworks. Six months later:
We had created a successful installation. We began getting frequent bookings. Jaws were dropping. What began as a “cool art installation” evolved into a project that had a profoundly positive impact on partygoers. We observed: This is the evolution of the photo booth. We’ve tapped into the selfie-driven culture of modern partygoers. But unlike traditional photo booths that isolate individuals, our experience is hyper-dynamic, hyper-visual, and introduces selflessness to the selfie for the first time in photo booth history. It’s an experience for you, and an experience for everyone.
Alt text: Partygoers enthusiastically engaging with the GIF DANCE PARTY capture booth, showcasing the interactive and social nature of the installation.
At the GIF DANCE PARTY capture booth, partygoers could interact with the party atmosphere in an unprecedented way. While traditional photo booths disconnect people from the environment, our installation propelled them directly into the heart of it – much like setting up a Slip ‘N Slide in the middle of the dance floor.
As a team of artists, coders, and designers, we are continuously experimenting with and refining the GIF DANCE PARTY experience. From its humble beginnings as a website to its current form as an immersive installation, GIF DANCE PARTY has been a truly delightful project, not only for the users and participants but also for us, the creators. Smiles all around, and there’s much more to come.
