Can a phenomenon from the digital realm materialize? ‘An animated GIF IRL’ is an exploration in translating between the digital and the analogue realm. It depicts my journey from the three-dimensional to the two-dimensional back to the three-dimensional through a detour of the two-dimensional to finally land in the four-dimensional on a three-dimensional vehicle. It is an account of my quest to find a way to transcend the digital realm. Rooted in my earlier work, and in relation to the work of artists such as James Turrell and Roman Signer I discuss notions of materiality, dimensional shifts and perception. The GIF is discussed in relation to its connotations to the printed pattern and old animation devices. Temporal and spatial repetition isdiscussed in relation to spacetime. The distortive aspects of the GIF are pondered upon andexperiments concerning generative software, the notion of chance and the search for a way todelegate responsibility for visual aesthetics to digital collaborators are accounted for. Myquestion is: How would it look like IRL?