The Most Expensive Gif of All Time in 2014 is No Longer the Most Expensive Gif of All Time in 2022

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/here-is-the-most-expensive-gif-of-all-time/379556/

In Megan Garber's article," The Most Expensive GIF of All Time' Is Being Sold for $5,800," the high price of a gif is discussed. The author focuses on Michael Green's gif, Balloon Dog Deflated, to explore how the changing of medium from physical to meta can change the pricing of art. I thought it was interesting to think about, as the artist still puts a lot of time and effort into digital art. Furthermore, digital art is as conceptual as physical art. It is also imperative to think about who decides the value of a piece of art, as Garber claims it is the highest bidder. As a society, we value digital art at a lower value than physical art, since many think it is easily reproducible. I am curious to see how my own conception of this changes as I explore further into the realm of digital art. With the rise of NFTs, a buyer can have sole ownership of a digital work and control over its reproducibility. Furthermore, it is interesting to consider how digital art changes when it is brought into the physical world, such as making prints or copies. These can contain alterations in their physical manifestations that are important to consider. As this article was written in 2014, it is intriguing to reflect on the advances in the digital art market. Now, the most expensive NFT is worth $91.8 million, and was actually sold.