Never Idle

Abstract

Research Article| June 01 2021 Never Idle: The Animated Screensaver and the Culture of Always-On Computing Kaitlin Clifton Forcier Kaitlin Clifton Forcier Kaitlin Clifton Forcier is a PhD candidate in the Department of Film and Media at UC Berkeley, completing a dissertation titled “The Infinite Image: Digital Media’s Endless Aesthetic.” Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (2021) 48 (2): 79–93. https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2021.48.2.79 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Kaitlin Clifton Forcier; Never Idle: The Animated Screensaver and the Culture of Always-On Computing. Afterimage 1 June 2021; 48 (2): 79–93. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2021.48.2.79 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentAfterimage Search In 2000, an exhibition at the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Center at Stanford University presented a suite of moving-image works created in a form not often seen in the context of the art gallery: the animated screensaver. The works in the show, by a group of artists with varied practices including Jenny Holzer, Glenn Ligon, and Paul Pfeiffer, explored the potential of what was at the time a new media form.1 Originally designed to prevent damage to the screen when a computer was left on for too long, the animated screensaver became something of a pop-culture sensation, and was one of the most successful types of commercial software of the 1990s. The simple utility’s most novel characteristic is its boundless duration: a screensaver automatically displays randomized, continuously changing graphics. The screensaver is unique as a genre of moving image in that—unlike film and video—it does not have... You do not currently have access to this content.