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| ''Exhibition detail of //Screensaver as a Unique and Shocking Artform//, Galerie XY, Olomouc, 2021-2022.'' | ''Fig. 1: Exhibition detail of //Screensaver as a Unique and Shocking Artform//, Galerie XY, Olomouc, 2021-2022.'' |
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| ''Exhibition detail of //Screensaver as a Unique and Shocking Artform//, Galerie XY, Olomouc, 2021-2022.'' | ''Fig. 2: Exhibition detail of //Screensaver as a Unique and Shocking Artform//, Galerie XY, Olomouc, 2021-2022.'' |
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| ==== Screensaver as an artwork ==== | ==== Screensaver as an artwork ==== |
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| ''Exhibition view of //Refresh: The Art of the Screensaver//, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, 2000.'' | ''Fig. 3: Exhibition view of //Refresh: The Art of the Screensaver//, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, 2000.'' |
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| Although the online part of the exhibition was supposed to last "indefinitely," it is missing from its original location. The original accompanying texts can still be read at the Internet Archive,[(James Buckhouse, Merrill Falkenberg, "Refresh. The Art of Screen Saver: Curatorial Statement," //ArtMuseum.net//, October 2000, https://web.archive.org/web/20010123224100/http://www.artmuseum.net/Refresh/about.html.)] but it is not possible to download and run screensavers. The exhibition's website was created by New York-based network artist Yael Kanarek and powered by Intel Corporation, which owns the copyright to the site's web framework and format elements.[(Email interviews with Intel Copyright Counsel + Senior Counsel | Trademarks & Brands Legal, 6-17 February 2021.)] Fortunately, Kanarek still had the original CD of the exhibition files and a physical printed poster, which she was willing to share.[(Yael Kanarek revealed that the exhibition was also part of the symposium //Attraction / Distraction: Perceptions of Media Art// held on 4 November 2000 at Stanford University's Department of Art and Art History and sponsored by Intel.)] Tomáš Javůrek, the technologist behind ScreenSaverGallery, was able to reconstruct the files. They were first shown online, in the original context of the computer screensaver as an exhibition at ScreenSaverGallery[(//ScreenSaverGallery presents: The Limits of ScreenSavers_A SCRAVER AS A UNIQUE AND SHOCKING ART FORM//, 2 December 2021 - 24 March 2022)] and in the physical exhibition space (white-cube) of Gallery XY.[(//Screensaver as a Unique and Shocking Art Form//, 13 December 2021 - 10 February 2022)] | Although the online part of the exhibition was supposed to last "indefinitely," it is missing from its original location. The original accompanying texts can still be read at the Internet Archive,[(Buckhouse, James, and Merrill Falkenberg, "Refresh. The Art of Screen Saver: Curatorial Statement," //ArtMuseum.net//, October 2000, https://web.archive.org/web/20010123224100/http://www.artmuseum.net/Refresh/about.html.)] but it is not possible to download and run screensavers. The exhibition's website was created by New York-based network artist Yael Kanarek and powered by Intel Corporation, which owns the copyright to the site's web framework and format elements.[(Email interviews with Intel Copyright Counsel + Senior Counsel | Trademarks & Brands Legal, 6-17 February 2021.)] Fortunately, Kanarek still had the original CD of the exhibition files and a physical printed poster, which she was willing to share.[(Yael Kanarek revealed that the exhibition was also part of the symposium //Attraction / Distraction: Perceptions of Media Art// held on 4 November 2000 at Stanford University's Department of Art and Art History and sponsored by Intel.)] Tomáš Javůrek, the technologist behind ScreenSaverGallery, was able to reconstruct the files. They were first shown online, in the original context of the computer screensaver as an exhibition at ScreenSaverGallery[(//ScreenSaverGallery presents: The Limits of ScreenSavers_A SCRAVER AS A UNIQUE AND SHOCKING ART FORM//, 2 December 2021 - 24 March 2022)] and in the physical exhibition space (white-cube) of Gallery XY.[(//Screensaver as a Unique and Shocking Art Form//, 13 December 2021 - 10 February 2022)] |
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| ''Exhibition view of //Refresh: The Art of the Screensaver//, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, 2000.'' | ''Fig. 4: Exhibition view of //Refresh: The Art of the Screensaver//, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, 2000.'' |
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| We had to contact the curators of //Refresh// not only for permission to use their selections, but also because many of the artworks were not originally screensavers, but other types of art forms: paintings, videos, or even documentaries, and turned into screensavers.[(The curators divided the 22 screensavers into four main themes: Web-Based Screensaver (Entropy8zuper!, C5, Alexander Galloway, Content Provider, PK Steffen), Digital Video (Paul Pfeiffer, Patty Chang), Narrative (Yael Kanarek, Jason Spingarn-Koff, Tarikh Korula’s, James Buckhouse in Double) and Painting, Graphics and Animation (Glenn Ligon, Francis Alÿs, Chris Finley, Peter Halley, Miriam Dym and Matthew Ritchie).)] In all cases, we had to contact the artists or their gallery representatives to get their permission to present the work on/off-line and to reconstruct the original form or meaning of the work. I was unable to reach Mick and Ted Skolnick in any way, and many of the artists are now represented by galleries, making communication difficult. For example, for Francis Alÿs' work, I obtained permission from Dia:, who commissioned the original work, but could not get any response from David Zwirner Gallery, who now represents the artist. The three screensavers could not be reconstructed and were presented as static images with explanatory captions in an online exhibition and as printed and framed photographs in the gallery after discussion with their artists. Alexander R. Galloway's //EveryImage// (2000) was originally a server-based work, downloading images in real time from the Rhizome database. //cameraSS// (2000) by the duo Entropy8Zuper was an online performance containing a live stream from a webcam that would need to be re-performed. However, the context of computer use is now quite different (and there was no time or resources to do so). //SoftSub// (1999), a screensaver from C5, was developed in the Mac Classic environment using Flash. These archival issues are now being addressed by the University of San Jose to include C5's work in its permanent collection. Flash-based artworks, such as Yael Kanarek's //World of Awe// (2000), were run on a virtual machine and recorded and then played back as video. Kanarek described the atmosphere of the effort to preserve obsolete digital works as follows: | We had to contact the curators of //Refresh// not only for permission to use their selections, but also because many of the artworks were not originally screensavers, but other types of art forms: paintings, videos, or even documentaries, and turned into screensavers.[(The curators divided the 22 screensavers into four main themes: Web-Based Screensaver (Entropy8zuper!, C5, Alexander Galloway, Content Provider, PK Steffen), Digital Video (Paul Pfeiffer, Patty Chang), Narrative (Yael Kanarek, Jason Spingarn-Koff, Tarikh Korula’s, James Buckhouse in Double) and Painting, Graphics and Animation (Glenn Ligon, Francis Alÿs, Chris Finley, Peter Halley, Miriam Dym and Matthew Ritchie).)] In all cases, we had to contact the artists or their gallery representatives to get their permission to present the work on/off-line and to reconstruct the original form or meaning of the work. I was unable to reach Mick and Ted Skolnick in any way, and many of the artists are now represented by galleries, making communication difficult. For example, for Francis Alÿs' work, I obtained permission from Dia:, who commissioned the original work, but could not get any response from David Zwirner Gallery, who now represents the artist. The three screensavers could not be reconstructed and were presented as static images with explanatory captions in an online exhibition and as printed and framed photographs in the gallery after discussion with their artists. Alexander R. Galloway's //EveryImage// (2000) was originally a server-based work, downloading images in real time from the Rhizome database. //cameraSS// (2000) by the duo Entropy8Zuper was an online performance containing a live stream from a webcam that would need to be re-performed. However, the context of computer use is now quite different (and there was no time or resources to do so). //SoftSub// (1999), a screensaver from C5, was developed in the Mac Classic environment using Flash. These archival issues are now being addressed by the University of San Jose to include C5's work in its permanent collection. Flash-based artworks, such as Yael Kanarek's //World of Awe// (2000), were run on a virtual machine and recorded and then played back as video. |
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| | Kanarek described the atmosphere of the effort to preserve obsolete digital works as follows: |
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| > "I tried to work with curator Kerry Doran on an initiative to preserve [[https://www.yaelkanarek.com/world-of-awe|World of Awe]], but they couldn't find resources in the US for this kind of work. In addition to my own work, I founded and led the [[http://www.upgrade.treasurecrumbs.com/|Upgrade! International]] for ten years with the support of Eyebeam. I've done various projects with Rhizome and created websites that supported networked art initiatives, including a [[https://artport.whitney.org/gatepages/index.shtml|legacy site for Whitney Artport]]. Most of the physical and digital artwork has been saved, as well as the old computers that are still functional (fingers crossed). I recently lost some important works due to a lightning interruption. It hurts a lot. I'm writing this cautiously, trying to feel the waters. The sum total of these creative endeavors seems to offer a timestamp of technological aesthetics, net art, and digital art from 1995-2006ish in New York and beyond."[(Email, 19 February 2021.)] | > "I tried to work with curator Kerry Doran on an initiative to preserve [[https://www.yaelkanarek.com/world-of-awe|World of Awe]], but they couldn't find resources in the US for this kind of work. In addition to my own work, I founded and led the [[http://www.upgrade.treasurecrumbs.com/|Upgrade! International]] for ten years with the support of Eyebeam. I've done various projects with Rhizome and created websites that supported networked art initiatives, including a [[https://artport.whitney.org/gatepages/index.shtml|legacy site for Whitney Artport]]. Most of the physical and digital artwork has been saved, as well as the old computers that are still functional (fingers crossed). I recently lost some important works due to a lightning interruption. It hurts a lot. I'm writing this cautiously, trying to feel the waters. The sum total of these creative endeavors seems to offer a timestamp of technological aesthetics, net art, and digital art from 1995-2006ish in New York and beyond."[(Email, 19 February 2021.)] |
| ==== Exhibition design ==== | ==== Exhibition design ==== |
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| ''Exhibition view of //Screensaver as a Unique and Shocking Artform//, Galerie XY, Olomouc, 2021-2022. Photo: Barbora Trnková.'' | ''Fig. 5: Exhibition view of //Screensaver as a Unique and Shocking Artform//, Galerie XY, Olomouc, 2021-2022. Photo: Barbora Trnková.'' |
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| {{meixner-2.jpg?640}} | {{meixner-1.jpg?640}} |
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| ''Exhibition view of //Screensaver as a Unique and Shocking Artform//, Galerie XY, Olomouc, 2021-2022. Photo: Barbora Trnková.'' | ''Fig. 6: Exhibition view of //Screensaver as a Unique and Shocking Artform//, Galerie XY, Olomouc, 2021-2022. Photo: Barbora Trnková.'' |
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| {{meixner-3.jpg?640}} | {{meixner-2.jpg?640}} |
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| ''Exhibition view of //Screensaver as a Unique and Shocking Artform//, Galerie XY, Olomouc, 2021-2022. Photo: Barbora Trnková.'' | ''Fig. 7: Exhibition view of //Screensaver as a Unique and Shocking Artform//, Galerie XY, Olomouc, 2021-2022. Photo: Barbora Trnková.'' |
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| The screensavers in the online ScreenSaverGallery were presented randomly and in a loop, and each of them was labeled (artist, title, year). It was more challenging to present them in the physical space of Gallery XY. The original technology would have been impossible to obtain under the conditions we had available, so the screensavers ran as videos on a modern monitor, which only minimally and humorously referred to the original solution by its arrangement in space and the inclusion of two "obsolete" PC cases as objects on which the monitor stood. All the screensavers were presented on a single screen, behind each other, unlike in the original exhibition where each had its own space. In contrast, the vertical walls were used to present an interactive screen with the original exhibition website (Yael Kanarek files), photographs of the installation obtained from Cantor Arts Center staff, and an xeroxed poster/CD booklet. | The screensavers in the online ScreenSaverGallery were presented randomly and in a loop, and each of them was labeled (artist, title, year). It was more challenging to show them in the physical space of Gallery XY. The original technology would have been impossible to obtain under the conditions we had available, so the screensavers ran as videos on a modern monitor, which only minimally and humorously referred to the original solution by its arrangement in space and the inclusion of two "obsolete" PC cases as objects on which the monitor stood. All the screensavers were presented on a single screen, behind each other, unlike in the original exhibition where each had its own space. In contrast, the vertical walls were used to present an interactive screen with the original exhibition website (Yael Kanarek files), photographs of the installation obtained from the Cantor Arts Center, and an xeroxed poster/CD booklet. |
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| Those screensavers that could no longer be reconstructed, despite all efforts, we decided, with the knowledge of their authors, to exhibit using a strategy that references another important digital art exhibition, //Written in Stone: A Net.art Archaeology//. This was a net.art exhibition curated by Per Platou for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo in 2003.[(http://www.perplatou.net/net.art/. See also Josephine Bosma, "Review: 'written in stone, a net.art archeology' at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo", //Rhizome//, 2003, https://rhizome.org/community/26042.)] His exhibition strategy very originally (and quite successfully) solved the problem of how to present intangible, interactive and rapidly obsolete web-based work in physical space. The key was the exaggerated glorification and seemingly bizarre "objectification" of digital works - presenting them as material objects, or through material objects closely related to the work or its creator. In doing so, Per Platou presented the spirit/concept/expression of the work better than if he had presented the net-art work itself in the white-cube space (i.e. in a completely different environment than the one for which it was intended). | Those screensavers that could no longer be reconstructed, despite all efforts, we decided, with the knowledge of their authors, to exhibit using a strategy that references another important digital art exhibition, //Written in Stone: A Net.art Archaeology//. This was a net.art exhibition curated by Per Platou for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo in 2003.[(http://www.perplatou.net/net.art/. See also Josephine Bosma, "Review: 'written in stone, a net.art archeology' at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo", //Rhizome//, 2003, https://rhizome.org/community/26042.)] His exhibition strategy very originally (and quite successfully) solved the problem of how to present intangible, interactive and rapidly obsolete web-based work in physical space. The key was the exaggerated glorification and seemingly bizarre "objectification" of digital works - presenting them as material objects, or through material objects closely related to the work or its creator. In doing so, Platou presented the spirit/concept/expression of the work better than if he had shown the work itself in the white-cube space (i.e. in a completely different environment than the one for which it was intended). |
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| {{meixner-7.jpg?640}} | {{meixner-7.jpg?640}} |
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| ''Exhibition view of //Written in Stone: A Net.art Archaeology//, Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, 2003.'' | ''Fig. 8: Exhibition view of //Written in Stone: A Net.art Archaeology//, Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, 2003.'' |
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| In gilded frames, marked by time and scratching, photographs of unreconstructible savers were bizarrely brilliant on a black passepartout. The resolution that twenty-two years ago took up an entire computer screen is now barely sufficient for a tiny digital print the size of the once-popular analogue photography formats. Our installation solution included a glass display case and an object on red velvet - the original CD containing the historical files, exhibiting the screensavers in their original form. Throughout the installation, the contradiction of new and old technologies was emphasized, all of which appear equally fragile and imperfect, and which are destined to become obsolete at the moment of their birth. The expensive large-format colour print, printed directly onto the wall by a vertical printer, failed technologically in its precision and flawless execution. It remains unfinished, the lines don't fit, the paint flakes off. | In gilded frames, marked by time and scratching, photographs of unreconstructible savers were bizarrely brilliant on a black passepartout. The resolution that twenty-two years ago took up an entire computer screen is now barely sufficient for a tiny digital print the size of the once-popular analogue photography formats. Our installation solution included a glass display case and an object on red velvet - the original CD containing the historical files, exhibiting the screensavers in their original form. Throughout the installation, the contradiction of new and old technologies was emphasized, all of which appear equally fragile and imperfect, and which are destined to become obsolete at the moment of their birth. The expensive large-format colour print, printed directly onto the wall by a vertical printer, failed technologically in its precision and flawless execution. It remains unfinished, the lines don't fit, the paint flakes off. |
| {{meixner-4.jpg?640}} | {{meixner-4.jpg?640}} |
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| ''Exhibition view of //pocalyptic Screensavers//, Vitrína Deniska, Olomouc, 2021-2022. Photo: Tomáš Jakubec.'' | ''Fig. 9: Exhibition view of //pocalyptic Screensavers//, Vitrína Deniska, Olomouc, 2021-2022. Photo: Tomáš Jakubec.'' |
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| In the corridor connecting the two exhibition spaces on the lower floors of the gallery, a number of tablets were placed, presenting documentary (often diy) materials of recent projects dealing with screensavers in the context of contemporary art. For the exhibition halls of the Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, the digital artist Rafaël Rozendaal prepared a large-scale exhibition of classic screensavers //Sleep Mode. The Art of the Screensaver// (2017). An unprecedented and daring project are two commercial virtual reality products from the Los Angeles-based studio FLOAT LAND: //Screensavers VR 1.0// and //Screensavers VR 2.0 and Evening Dreams// (both launched in 2019).[(https://float.land/ScreensaversVR)] Their users can find themselves inside the all-enveloping canonical screensavers of the 1990s and 2000s - and get lost in reading studies on screensavers from the likes of Joanne McNeil, D. S. Chun, Steve F. Anderson, Mark America, Bill Stewart, and others. The essays are also currently being prepared for book publication. The online exhibition //screensaver watching you//, curated by Pita Arreola-Burns and Elliott Burns, took place in 2020 on the Off Site Project online gallery website. [(http://www.offsiteproject.org/)] The selection of works and the design of the website was inspired by the legacy of screensavers and the haunting nature of our digital devices and what lies beyond the surface of the screen. The //Apocalyptic Screensavers// exhibition was realized in 2020 in Queens, New York, at a smaller art gallery called 5-50. It presented videos and prints by American digital artists Sean Capone, Justin Wood, Yoshi Sodeoka and the group LoVid. Instead of official documentation, only a walk-through video of the opening night is available, as the exhibition closed early due to covid. The theme of the screensaver - as a kind of algorithmic wallpaper on a digital screen - is used to celebrate the allure of pure decorativeness, the almost brazen joy of the artistic process, and the phantasmagorical and hypnotic environments appearing on the computer screen we currently inhabit (i.e. a counterpoint to interior wallpaper or murals). The video part of the exhibition was shown at Vitrína Deniska in Olomouc from 19 December 2021 to 20 March 2022. | In the corridor connecting the two exhibition spaces on the lower floors of the gallery, a number of tablets were placed, presenting documentary (often diy) materials of recent projects dealing with screensavers in the context of contemporary art. For the exhibition halls of the Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, the digital artist Rafaël Rozendaal prepared a large-scale exhibition of classic screensavers //Sleep Mode. The Art of the Screensaver// (2017). An unprecedented and daring project are two commercial virtual reality products from the Los Angeles-based studio FLOAT LAND: //Screensavers VR 1.0// and //Screensavers VR 2.0 and Evening Dreams// (both launched in 2019).[(https://float.land/ScreensaversVR)] Their users can find themselves inside the all-enveloping canonical screensavers of the 1990s and 2000s - and get lost in reading studies on screensavers from the likes of Joanne McNeil, D. S. Chun, Steve F. Anderson, Mark America, Bill Stewart, and others. The essays are also currently being prepared for book publication. The online exhibition //screensaver watching you//, curated by Pita Arreola-Burns and Elliott Burns, took place in 2020 on the Off Site Project online gallery website. [(http://www.offsiteproject.org/)] The selection of works and the design of the website was inspired by the legacy of screensavers and the haunting nature of our digital devices and what lies beyond the surface of the screen. The //Apocalyptic Screensavers// exhibition was realized in 2020 in Queens, New York, at a smaller art gallery called 5-50. It presented videos and prints by American digital artists Sean Capone, Justin Wood, Yoshi Sodeoka and the group LoVid. Instead of official documentation, only a walk-through video of the opening night is available, as the exhibition closed early due to covid. The theme of the screensaver - as a kind of algorithmic wallpaper on a digital screen - is used to celebrate the allure of pure decorativeness, the almost brazen joy of the artistic process, and the phantasmagorical and hypnotic environments appearing on the computer screen we currently inhabit (i.e. a counterpoint to interior wallpaper or murals). The video part of the exhibition was shown at Vitrína Deniska in Olomouc from 19 December 2021 to 20 March 2022. |
