20120116 Marius Watz - aHO interactiOn design

ScreenSaver culture

screensavers as historical artifact. a brief summary of historical significance and current state of disinterest. Proposed task: design a screensaver for the 21st century, updated to contemporary interface culture.

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ScreenSaverS - a hiStory

» screensavers are computer programs designed to prevent phosphor burn-in on crt monitors.

» “saving” the screen is done by blanking the screen or filling it with non-static images or patterns.

» first recognized screensaver was “scrnsave” (John socha, 1983), which simply blanked the screen. Predated by screensaver-like behavior on atari systems (1977, 1979).

ScreenSaverS - a hiStory

» screensavers quickly became an area of graphic experimentation, typically using parametric graphic algorithms to create ever-generating images.

» Popular in the 1990’s as a way to customize one’s computer and express personality (much like ringtones etc.) Many screensavers were humorous or intended as eye candy, giving them status as pop culture artifacts.

» Possible high point: the after dark screensaver collection by Berkeley systems, 1989.

ScreenSaverS - typologieS

» traditional screensaver types include: - simple blank screens - generative animations (i.e. lissajous curves, bouncing polygons, the Mac Os “flurry” etc.) - animated jokes, software parodies - Photographic slideshows

» also popular: screensaver as corporate branding and advertising channel (typically to promote films, cars and consumer lifestyle products)

after dark, flying toasters (1989)

after dark, starry night (1989)

flurry, Mac Os X (calum robinson, 2003)

StatuS quo - Stagnation

» in the last 10 years the screensaver format has largely stagnated, due in part to the disappearance of crt screens. it is safe to assume most computer users today have never installed a custom screensaver.

» this is despite ever-increasing computing power that would allow screensavers today to be far more advanced than the relatively primitive historical examples.

Stagnation

» Mac Os X has cleverly used the “flurry” screensaver (developed by calum robinson, 2003) as an instant branding device, installed as the default screen saver since 2003. the flurry graphic is now instantly recognizable and clearly linked to the apple brand.

» Microsoft Windows 7 comes with a minimal collection of bland screensavers, clearly showing a lack of interest in the format.

taSk: how can ScreenSaverS become relevant once again?

» despite the disappearing need for “saving” screens the basic screensaver format still has a lot of potential. a non-interactive app with screen output has a lot of possible uses.

» How to revive this dying format and reposition it as a contemporary piece of interaction design?

» What new forms and functions can we imagine for screensavers in 2012?

ScreenSaver 2012 upgrade: poSSible new formatS

» ambient info gadget, integrated w/ mobile apps over network connection

» news / data / social feed aggregation + display

» generative artwork

» delivery channel for curated art and design content

» networked parallel computing platform

» realtime infoviz: Personal data tracking, web site analytics, social media interactions

ScreenSaver 2012 upgrade

» Old screensavers were standalone applications without data-saving functions.

» now screensavers can be data-driven, networked, integrated apps, connected to public aPis or sync’ing with your personal data sources.

» screensavers are ideally suited for ambient data displays given their passive nature. a perfect case would be data personal to the computer’s owner.

» still just want some eye candy? generative graphics have come a long way since 1989.

http://twistori.com

twistori: twitter search screensaver

http://twingly.com

twingly: realtime blog visualization

geocodearth, flickr, twitter, georss mashup

http://www.geocodearth.com/

ScreenSaver 2012 upgrade

» another powerful concept: Massively distributed computing using screensavers and network communication to borrow cPu time from willing participants.

» examples: seti @ Home, electric sheep

scott draves: electric sheep distributed fractal computing

www.electricsheep.org

seti @ HOMe, distributed supercomputer

http://seticlassic.ssl.berkeley.edu/screensaver/

http://9031.com/goodies/#briblohttp://9031.com/goodies/#briblo

Yuji adachi, BriBlo (2012)

rafaël rozendaal: towards and Beyond

http://www.newrafael.com/shop/towards-and-beyond-screensaver/

http://www.stefantrifan.com/theweather/

scr/tha: dropclock

http://scr.sc/products/dropclock/

terence M. Welsh: Helios (Opengl)

http://www.reallyslick.com/screensavers.html

thank you for liStening!

Marius Watz is:

marius@unlekker.nethttp://www.unlekker.net

http://twitter.com/mariuswatzhttp://twitter.com/generatorx

http://www.generatorx/ http:// workshop.evolutionzone.com/http:// flickr.com/photos/watz/