Giphoscope lets you play animated GIFs in the real world

What do you get for the person who has everything? Why, a hand-cranked analog GIF machine, of course.

There are several scenarios we can imagine where you're no longer able to enjoy your favourite animated GIFs. What if there's a blackout and at the same time, all your mobile gadgets are out of power? Or you're camping far from any gadgets? Or some kind of giant monster develops an EMP and knocks out every electronic device in the city?

You could, of course, get a lenticular card or two printed up, but there's a classier way. Marco Calabrese and Alessandro Scali of Officina K have what they are calling a "Giphoscope" — a hand-cranked GIF machine.

Based on the mutoscope created by Herman Casler in the 1890s, the Giphoscope follows the same principle as the flip book: a sequence of images on a Rolodex-style wheel with a handle that you can turn to "flip" them.

"As GIF creators — Okkult Motion Pictures is our brainchild — we know it's very easy to show/share an animated GIF on the web, but it's hard to find an offline GIF player to exhibit and sell a GIF as a single, unique artwork," Calabrese and Scali wrote on their website. "We have conceived, designed and handcrafted the Giphoscope with the objective of proposing to artists/galleries/museums/collectors a minimalistic, unconventional, retro-futuristic analog GIF player, entirely tailor made and handmade in Italy. Thanks to Giphoscope, animated GIF becomes a tangible and exclusive artwork."

The Giphoscope starts at €299 (around AU$430). At that price, we're not entirely sure that our first excited thought — animated cat GIFs — would be the best use of the gadget. However, we could easily see GIF artists, such as Insa and Paolo Čerić — getting some really beautiful objets d'art to showcase their talent.

Head over to the Giphoscope website to check it out. And, just because we can't put it on a Giphoscope, enjoy our favourite cat GIF.