The Enduring Liminality of the Screensaver

the concept of liminality is somewhat difficult to Define broadly speaking it refers to transitional spaces existing in the middle of two more important places they are transient in nature a fleeting part of our journey seen and then immediately forgotten in these Lial spaces we hover out a threshold a state of ambiguity not quite in not quite out but somewhere in the middle there's an unsettling familiarity it's almost real but we cannot escape a sense that something is ever so slightly off somehow in this maze we find ourselves in one of these places there's no clear Direction just a faceless character wandering the Halls the rules of reality in this maze are different floating objects flip the world upside down strange images are plastered over the brick walls the occasional rat does little to soothe this feeling of isolation and emptiness at the end of the maze lies a solitary floating yellow smiley face but this is a deceptive shape there's no reward for completing the maze No Escape from its Halls Instead The Maze collapses and is instantly replaced with yet another maze it's a cycle that will continue Forever This scene is a screen saver a relic of past computer technology screen savers were a necessity to prevent screen burn in on Old cathode ray tube monitors if an individual image was held idle on one of these screens for too long a permanent etching would be created which would persist even as other images were shown to combat this effect the screen saver was developed named because they would literally save the screen from burning by showing new images the monitor would be protected from damage screen savers at their very core are limal devices in this state the computer is neither completely active nor completely off residing in a suspended idle mode screen savers fill this void their Purp purpose is to occupy screen space to be there but not noticed to be present but unintrusive and it's this very purpose that makes them uniquely positioned to be a case study in liminality a lens through which to explore the very concept so join me as we take a journey back in time to discover how the screen server became an underrated example of [Music] liminality the early history of screen savers is somewhat murky as far back as 1977 some Atari games would cycle the colors when left Idol for long enough however the term screen saer first emerged in 1983 with a program named screens.com it was written by John SOA for MS DOS a commandline operating system developed by Microsoft this screen saver would simply dim the screen after a few minutes of inactivity the Apple Lisa computer had a similar feature logically this should have been as far as screen savers ever went preventing Burnin doesn't require anything beyond turning the monitor Dark Yet there must have been some sort of Allure to the idea of visuals being shown during idle time in May of 1986 Bob seagull created I one of the very first animated screen savers instead of a blank screen I presents a disembodied eye looking around if you disturb it by pressing a key the pupil dilates and makes an angry noise while I is fairly simple it introduced visual elements that would set the tone for future screen savers suspended in an endless void the unblinking eye created an unsettling almost hypnotic effect the surrealism was partly necessitated by the aira's Limited graphical technology in fact many early Ms do screen savers were initially conceived of as Tech demos bluring the line between functionality in digital art they served as an excuse to make something cool in the computer something that didn't have rigid [Music] requirements the technological limits LED naturally to a distinct theme found in many early screen savers abstract geometric patterns screen savers like 1987's tunnel by Dan Butterfield is a simple example with its concentric color gradients Dazzle by Michael Peter inglebright takes a busier approach displaying shifting kaleidoscopic patterns the following year plasma was released generating a hue cycling tie-dye image it even saved the picture for future use a highlight from the MS DOS era is Terry dorf's 198 mediate creation Lumen it produces the illusion of three-dimensional boxes and shapes growing and morphing in real time there is some similarity to 20th century abstract art the images displayed are reminiscent of Joseph Alber pet mandrian or Frank Stella however it's extended into the temporal realm these boxes evolve over time the art isn't static but it also never really goes anywhere either it's an infinite progression towards nothing tragically dorf's murder in 1991 makes Lumen one of his few remaining Creations a highlight of the 1980s geometric screen savers not every screen saver was full of color however Kevin stoke's inner Mission took a simpler approach the tiny white points create the illusion that we're on a spaceship zipping past stars at high speed it is clearly inspired by Star Wars hyperspace or Star Trek's warp speed the effect is simple but instantly memorable as a solid screen saver so solid in fact that it wasn't long until it was copied by someone much bigger on October 8th 1990 Microsoft introduced its first official screen savers designed for the recently released Windows 3.0 they were found within the Standalone Microsoft entertainment pack for a price of $39.95 included with stars a nearly identical replica of intermission it's an early example of a trend that would continue for years screen saver developers taking influence from others sometimes to the extent of blatant copying as such none of Microsoft entertainment pack screen savers were particularly innovative it's worth mentioning that this was the first time that the game Microsoft mind sweeper was publicly released though even this took heavy inspiration from a 7-year-old game named mind out while geometrically inspired images may be beautiful they don't quite seem Lial they're too abstract there's not a physical connection for us to latch on to and it is here that we discover a truth of liminality for an image to be Lial there must be some sort of connection to a real life visual concept something that grounds us a bit if not our brains are content to interpret them as abstract ideas and we don't get that sense of unease there are a few screen savers from the 80s that do approach this territory the technological constraints of the time inadvertently sculpted an aesthetic that would endure STK colors against dark textureless backgrounds we saw this in I another is 1989's bug fry here a bug zapper hangs ominously luring flies to their eventual Annihilation these visuals feel almost dreamlike real but not quite existing in a space between realistic and Abstract this aesthetic would be more deeply explored later that year with the arrival of after dark it would truly revolutionize the screen saver Paradigm the program was built upon a simpler foundation called Magic screen saer it was initially released for the Macintosh after much effort I was unfortunately unable to find a completely working disc image of it thankfully there was an addition release for Windows in 1990 and this version is much more wellknown for the low low price of $9.95 you could install no fewer than 35 different screen savers on your Windows 3.1 computer it is here that the empty pitch black aesthetic is explored more deeply fish swim in a simulated aquarium eyes open and closed in the darkness watching us from afar cats explore the screen chasing butterflies other worldly Landscapes are generated again and again but of all these the strangest and most famous is the flying tote toasters in the darkness we watch toasters with wings on a journey to who knows where pieces of toast float alongside them there is even an option to decide how well done the toast is the end result is an especially memorable screen saver I guarantee that some of you watching right now are feeling a wave of nostalgia because you haven't seen the flying toasters in years other screen savers from after dark continue the geometric tradition some of these are downright mesmerizing spiral Gyra generates sequences of multicolored lines which velop the illusion of motion Rose is another highlight pointless rainbow spiral Spin and morph producing beautiful curved shapes stained glass takes a different approach containing more complex lines shapes and duplications the result is a very wide variety of possibilities other simpler examples include a basic fluid simulation called Ripple and waves with shifting cues in Satori [Music] after dark is also notable because it included several screen savers that affect the desktop as far as I can tell the 1989 Macintosh version was the first to ever do this and it was extended in the windows version down the drain causes your entire desktop to swirl down the sink programs icons and all can of worms causes the screen to be slowly eaten by tiny bugs until little remains String Theory slowly covers the screen with beams of light It's probably hard to underestimate the influence of after dark on the Aesthetics of future screen savers it had a level of passion a level of oddness that hadn't really been seen before and while it did push the geometric side forward it's more notable because it committed to the idea that screen savers could be anything they could be bold confusing funny and maybe just a little bit surreal other screen saver packs were released in the shadow of after dark Microsoft created two additional entertainment packs in 1991 highlights include spider web in which a web is constructed on screen Chomp in which the desktop is slowly eaten away oriental rug which created pointless geometric patterns and divide and conquer in which the desktop is split into smaller and smaller tiles however Microsoft was about to make a much more impactful change one that would usher in a new era to this point all of the screen savers we've looked at were standalone products either paid shareware or free but with the release of Windows 3.1 in April of 1992 screen savers were included natively within the Windows operating system these screen savers were relatively conservative even compared to the entertainment packs mystify had colored polygons bouncing around the screen and Starfield simulation was a version of stars the most notable new addition was flying Windows which was very similar to Starfield simulation but with multicolored Windows logos instead the built-in screen savers were Frank L pretty simple and somewhat dull but all this would change with the release of Windows 95 the volume and variety of included windows screen savers increased dramatically and for the first time Windows had a signature the 3D maze this screen saver elevated the genre to new heights in terms of graphical complexity the improved sense of physical space enabled 3D maze to be another truly Lial screen saver and it shows us another core concept of lional a sense of loneliness it feels as if it's a precursor to the back rooms infinite hallways twists and turns and a dreadful knowledge that no matter what we aren't finding a way out of this place when I watch The Maze I get a profound feeling of isolation a fear that no one else exists in the world except for me another innovation of Windows 95 was the integration of real life photographs into screen saver Design This had been done at least once before in 1991 a programmer named D Stewart riff made a Dos screen saver called Bush save. exe launching it shows none other than the floating head of George HW Bush suspended in a black void read my lip Microsoft took a less political approach opting instead for thematic screen savers but these are weird in their own way baseball shows a diamond sitting on the black void photographs of players doing various actions fade in and out of the empty space there's also snowboarding showing snowboarders doing various tricks this one is notable for its particularly strange sound design the innocuous images are accompanied by some oddly ominous noises what does this have to do with snowboarding the golden era was another unusual creation it has a man reading a newspaper while tapping his foot in the background we see a sequence of disconnected images and sounds creating a disjointed dreamlike narrative the images feel a bit surreal as it turns out surrealism is a common tendency of photograph based screen savers another example is the hes screen saver it's simply a slideshow of pictures of horses there's nothing exactly wrong with these pictures but it's hard to escape the sense that they aren't quite right either they're ever so slightly off-kilter a tiny bit unreal this effect is even more pronounced in a Windows 98 plus screen saver called World traveler some of these images feel downright uncomfortable it's almost difficult to believe that these are photographs of actual places and it is here that once again we feel that sense of loneliness as if we're the only one here existing in a world devoid of sentient life once again this sense of surrealism can be partially explained by the technology the resolution and number of available colors on monitors was limited thus forcing any real life image to be merely a crude approximation the horror Channel screen saver exemplified this a grainy Castle on a Mountaintop a dark dungeon with cobwebs a mysterious Tower in the distance with a darken figure at top it the photograph screen savers were a new aesthetic category and they represented one of the major contributions of Microsoft in the late '90s but there were also screen savers that were less creepy electronic components float over circuit board on inside your computer with various beeping sound effects dangerous creatures display sharks and Rays swimming around the screen space has an astronaut and various pieces of equipment floating Among the Stars jungle displays various plants and animals bugs and nature both let us watch insects walk across the forest floor fashion lets us see some well fashion despite the trend towards more realistic depictions there are other screen savers of the time which maintain the geometric Concepts one such example is three 3D pipes where we watch meaningless Plumbing generate in real time these pipes have random shapes different colors and even different joint types if you want a flexible bendy type of pipe that's available too there's even the option to set your own pipe texture eventually the screen resets and starts over we also have 3D flower box and 3D flying objects both of which have various types of 3D geometry morph as they Bounce Around the screen these are much smoother and more detailed than previous 3D screen savers but none of these is quite as interesting as organic art included in Windows 98 Plus organic art isn't so much a screen saver as it is a screen saver engine boasting an impressive array of 31 different scenes each features Dynamic 3D geometry against a pre-rendered background showcasing a remarkable diversity of possibilities it's actually possible to install organic art Deluxe if users want to make their own screen savers there are options to change the background the shape the way it moves the way it morphs the number of objects the texture and even the shading there are truly some bizarre possibilities especially in the backdrop imagery we find Stark alien Landscapes beckoning to be explored there are strange tubes going into something resembling a wormhole several are mcer inspired staircases and there's a 3D scene of Cubes that would fit right in with Mark 101 as expected some of these images are more organic in nature we see fleshy tubes perhaps an IM of intestines but it gets even weirder there's a rendering of an amorphous bone material and a 3D rendered skeleton one that appears to be the view from inside of a spinal column and then there's well whatever this is perhaps a skull of some kind and as we explore these background images we discover that there's a rather odd obsession with heads rows of them in a line missing their eyes and army of people staring at us in some green space a vast number of them lying down in a circle heads with some sort of tail attached to them why are there so many images of heads with Tails why are they surrounding a pink sphere what are these things and finally there's an image called zoo. GIF we see four additional heads but this time they're real is this a portrait of the Creator William laam it's hard to know for sure in terms of pure Oddity organic art represents one of the heights of screen saer creativity it's one of the many standouts of the 1990s which was a golden AG for the medium so many interesting ideas were developed by so many people and screen savers were brought to a wider audience than ever before what Innovations would be seen in the 2000s how far could the screen saver medium be pushed in the late '90s it felt nearly Limitless but unfortunately Y2K marked the beginning of the screen saver's gradual descent Into Obscurity LCD screens were not affected by burning and they were becoming increasingly Popular by the end of 2003 more LCD screens were sold than C RTS as a result the screen saver became more and more of an afterthought in Windows operating systems including Microsoft Plus Windows 95 had 27 official screen savers Windows 98 dropped to 21 Windows 2000 and XP had 11 screen savers each Windows Vista had eight Windows 7 had seven and as of 2023 there are just six that remain buried deep within the settings and turned off by default long gone are the days of spectacularly surreal and odd screen Savers there is no more 3D maze no more flying toasters no more organic art for the most part screen savers are a relic of the past memories of a Time Gone by but perhaps that's fitting the very history of the screen saver is a Lial story a transitional period of Technology something necessary in the moment but not afterwards something we noticed but never really stopped to think about and without us realizing it they slowly disappeared one day we looked up and they were gone while screen savers were initially designed just to fill up pixels on a screen they grew to be far more than that they developed into their own unique art form with evolving tastes Concepts and ideas in fact near the end of the 9s many screen savers weren't even good at their initial jobs they had static images that would remain on the screen some used relatively complex 3D rendering causing the hardware to be performing computations when it would have been better off doing nothing and through it all there was a persistent aesthetic trend of liminality screen savers lingered in a region between off and on between old technology and new technology between interesting and boring flying toasters endless mazes pictures of other worlds visual suspended and a static realm moving but not progressing evolving towards nothing morphing within their own temporary world and we know that moving the mouse would cause them to disappear and we would exit the transitional space but maybe we'll linger here just a bit longer and enjoy this deeply linal art form the likes of which may never be seen [Music] again thank you so much for joining me for this video I know it's a bit different from what I've done in the past but I had a lot of fun making it and I hope you had fun watching it it's a topic I've always had a bit of an interest in and I decided to just make a video about it if you want to discuss this more I'd love to have you on the RG and Discord server the link is in the description this has been Retro Gaming now thank you so much for watching and I'll see you all in the next video have a great [Music] day no

Channel: RetroGamingNow

Views: 131,163

Keywords: Retro, Gaming, Now, RetroGamingNow, RGN, Let's, Play

Id: hbyZQ6i6bsw

Length: 21min 15sec (1275 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 12 2023