Two Finnish Artists Create Longest GIF in the World That Will Play for 1000 Years

September 28, 2015

The world’s longest and slowest GIF will take 1,000 years to play.

Finnish artists Juha van Ingen and Janne Särkelä have created the world’s longest GIF, titled “As Long As Possible” (ASLAP). A GIF, or graphics interchange format, is a lossless format for image files that supports both animated and static images. The ASLAP GIF includes 48,140,288 frames that change every 10 minutes. It is projected to run for a 1,000 years before it cycles through the entire sequence, according to the Indian Express. Each frame in the art display is numbered in white at the middle of a pitch black background.

The art project was inspired by American musician John Cage’s composition “Organ2/ASLSP” written in 1987. The composition is intended to be played as slowly as possible so that it is the longest-lasting musical performance being undertaken, according to the Washington Post. A concert for the piece started in 2001 at a church in Halberstadt, Germany, and it is expected to finish in 2640. The entire composition is believed to take 639 years to complete when played with the Halberstad organs.

The Finnish artist duo is set to start their GIF in 2017 in honor of the 30th anniversary of the GIF. The sequence will finish its first loop and start replaying in 3017.

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