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- animation, education, Generator.x, history, Mac, Marius Watz, screensaver, Theory, Windows
Screensaver, Revisited [Reference]
While the euphoric, dynamic forms of computational artist Marius Watz are probably quite familiar to CAN readers, the artist’s curatorial and educational undertakings should definitely not to be overlooked. As an extension of his practice, Marius consistently organizes prescient and formative exhibitions and workshops (see the upcoming Generator.x 3.0: From Code to Atoms) and often teaches within various design and architecture schools across Europe and North America. Marius just posted the above slideshow of an upcoming teaching exercise that he’ll be overseeing at the The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) and it is worth clicking through. Entitled “Screensaver Culture” the assignment is a critical reflection on the current potential of the screensaver given that the days of CRT monitor burn-in have long passed. In setting up the exercise, Marius provides a chronological lists of essential precedents including scrnsave (1983), After Dark (1989), SETI@home Classic (1999-2005) and reconsiders that lineage in light of contemporary computing (and data practice) trends to extrapolate a range of approaches that his students might employ. Check out Marius’ slide deck and assignment brief – it offers a surprisingly compelling retelling of an easily overlooked topic within the broader history of computer graphics.
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While the euphoric, dynamic forms of computational artist Marius Watz are probably quite familiar to CAN readers, the artist's curatorial and educational undertakings should definitely not to be overlooked. As an extension of his practice, Marius consistently organizes prescient and formative exhibitions and workshops (see the upcoming Generator.x 3.0: From Code to Atoms) and often teaches within various design and architecture schools across Europe and North America. Marius just posted the above slideshow of an upcoming teaching exercise that he'll be overseeing at the The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) and it is worth clicking through. Entitled "Screensaver Culture" the assignment is a critical reflection on the current potential of the screensaver given that the days of CRT monitor burn-in have long passed. In setting up the exercise, Marius provides a chronological lists of essential precedents including scrnsave (1983), After Dark (1989), SETI@home Classic (1999-2005) and reconsiders that lineage in light of contemporary computing (and data practice) trends to extrapolate a range of approaches that his students might employ. Check out Marius' slide deck and assignment brief – it offers a surprisingly compelling retelling of an easily overlooked topic within the broader history of computer graphics.
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i like Weeghel’s screensaver based on
www.creativeapplications.net/objects/dynamic-structure-29117-c-objects/
pc & mac download:
www.willemvanweeghel.nl/downloads/ScreenSaver-29117_pc.zip
www.willemvanweeghel.nl/downloads/ScreenSaver-29117_mac.zip
still like the fractal clock of 2005
www.dqd.com/~mayoff/programs/FractalClock/
Rather having than a simple discussion of screen savers and how they’ve been used historically, I’d love to see an article of how they can be used and re-instated as an artistic form.
My experience is that most people ignore them (both when setting up a computer and when viewing an “idle’ computer monitor) – how can we bring back “the aura of the flying toaster” :)?
Beyond their functional obsolescence, Watz fails to point out that screen savers are also out of favor due to the wasted energy of keeping a display device powered on when no one is watching. Distributed computing projects and other processor-intensive applications just pile on the energy demand even more.
Aesthetic screen savers sound great, but they are probably best paired with very low power displays or devices that can detect viewers and power down when not being watched.
I agree with you Phillip, screensaver doesn’t rhyme with power saver. Example : my 24″ inches lcd monitor consumes 85 Wph which is roughly the same as my old 19 inches CRT monitor. No big progress in this field in many years, waiting for OLED big screen where a black pixel = zero power consumption at this point. Then “screen saver” could make sense where graphics and typo are thin on a black background :) Combine this with facial recognition for user detection and we have a winner for saving our earth from stoping wasting energy.
PS : sorry for my poor english
how about artificial life and artificial intelligence? check out breveCreatures,
www.spiderland.org/screensaver
The Framed* ( frm.fm/ ) project to me was an answer to this, even going back to Eno’s diary he called for a software-based use of the computer screen. This is, in a sense, here now, with tablets, and smartphones as we constantly see on this website, but like Framed, the need must come from the function of the screen which in it’s own right serves no other purpose than computational display. But there is a difference between the small displays offered up by tablets and the larger ‘tv’ screen we get at home. This is probably more common in the public sphere, but introducing it into the home is perhaps a bigger challenge. As always, Apple will probably be the ones to crack it, not without their usual proprietary ways of implementation, but Android etc will soon follow, once the precedent is set. Because computers are machines of work, and tv’s are passive machines of display. If I’m using my computer, I’m not looking at a Screensaver. But when the tv merges with the computer, then hey, Maybe I’ll be working on my Macbook Pro while I leave some Marius Watz on, on the TV in the background.