SCR

I came across this one apparently discarded in one of the many creative cul-de-sacs in the dusty corners of the web, homes to ideas that seemed good at the time, teams that fell out, inventions that didn't work, innovation that proved too far ahead of its time, concepts outpaced by events. The expansion of the web implies that there must be many such, though search engines try to sneak past without disturbing them if possible. In this case, it's a Japanese collaborative arts project that produced a handful of innovative screensavers back in 2009, boasted of the beginnings of an exciting new project, and has apparently gathered dust ever since, with bug fixes for the work but nothing new. Which is a shame, as what did get produced was a refreshing change to most contemporary screensavers - probably why it never caught on. There are animated examples of the work on the front page, click on each to see a video clip of the work in action. The concept of screensavers is redundant, but just won't lie down and die respectably. Even operating system manufacturers continue to ship entirely pointless screensavers and probably will do so indefinitely, long after anyone remembers what a screensaver was originally intended to do. There's a great opportunity for the digital arts community to exploit here, and save us from the endless fantasy clocks, fish tanks and landscape scenes that dominate the genre, especially given the capability of modern machines to run fluid interactive graphics on the desktop. This project doesn't seem to have broken through, which I think is a pity. Perhaps, too Japanese, too arty. Still, worth a passing visit, if only to admire the idea of a screensaver based on the current real-time wind speed in your city.