ScreenSaverGallery

3. 3. 2022

Anita Somrová, Eternity Escape Obsession, SSG, 2014 Szabolcs KissPál, Amorous Geography, SSG, 2015

In its now classic offering of screensavers, Windows 98 offered the growing 3-D pipeline, also known as the Plumber's Nightmare. The pipe appeared in a black void and gradually filled the entire monitor. The recurring motif and monotony of the animation evoked a calming ambience. ScreenSaverGallery, on the other hand, offers a miscellaneous experience and a moment of surprise.

The original function of the screen saver program was to run moving images to prevent the graphic pattern (phosphor) from burning in on computer monitors. Today, current monitors no longer have this problem, but savers are still used, for instance for security - when they require a password to access the device again. ScreenSaverGallery is an online exhibition space that uses the space of the saver as an exhibition medium. This virtual gallery is actually an application that the user / visitor installs on their computer and which automatically updates with a new exhibition program. The application can be downloaded for free on the ScreenSaverGallery website or other platforms. In the Czech environment, this is a unique project – one that has been presenting digital and internet art for a long time. It owes its creation to the Brno artistic duo & (Barbora Trnková and Tomáš Javůrek) in collaboration with curator Maria Meixnerová. Since 2013, more than thirty exhibitions have taken place in the saver gallery. Currently you can see the broad retrospective project The Limits of ScreenSavers_A SCRAVER AS A UNIQUE AND SHOCKING ART FORM, which is also on view for the first time in parallel in a physical space, in Gallery XY in Olomouc.

ScreenSaverGallery art projects come to their visitors on their own, when the desktop is no longer occupied by work, entertainment, procrastination or, say, self-education – a moment when we disconnect from the screen for a while. The saver becomes a channel that turns our personal computers into a gallery space with a curated exhibition. The exhibited works appear when the computer is idle, often at the point when we are no longer there. We come into contact with art only when we return to work. This makes for an unusual situation. We do not search out the visual artwork, we do not encounter it on our own initiative; on the contrary, with an active gesture - touching the computer after a while, we leave the gallery, close it and return to our original intention, from which the artwork diverted our attention.

The art of ScreenSaverGallery is mostly site-specific, so artists work with this particular presentation format. In addition to world-famous names such as Joanna Zylinska, Aram Bartholl or JODI, artists from the Czech scene such as Kateřina Olivová and David Přílučí have also shown here. The image here is from Sarah Ludy’s Dream House project, from 2015.

All images: Anita Somrová, Eternity Escape Obsession, SSG, 2014 Szabolcs KissPál, Amorous Geography, SSG, 2015

Text: Barbora Mrázková

Barbora Mrázková

studied photography at FAMU. Until 2008, she worked in an artistic duo with Filip Láb. She works mainly with photography, video and installation. She deals with the algorithmic nature of photography.

#41 Postdigital Photography

Few theorists of photography have a complex vision of the whole world of photography and the need not to confine this medium in discrete bubbles or groups of supporters. Filip Láb was one of these. He took part in debates during the preparation of issues of the magazine; he belonged to the editorial board. Filip left this world prematurely. His exceptional capacity to span photojournalism and to reflect on contemporary art was unique, and it is precisely this type of understanding and openness that helps to merge bubbles instead of reinforcing our confinement in them. We will all miss it. The intention of this issue is to develop the legacy of Filip Láb and his latest book of the same name, Postdigital Photography. Filip’s contributions consisted both in an interest in the medium of photography and the technological aspects of its further development, as well as in observing the media world and uncovering the manipulations that photography can facilitate in a way that is even dangerously brilliant. We will start on post-digital photography with the first digitally edited image in the world, John Knoll’s depiction of his girlfriend Jennifer in Tahiti. Artist Constant Dullaart dedicated an entire project to Jennifer using Photoshop filters with the ability to comment on both the recent past and ask questions about the future development of image making. Another paradigmatic example that Filip would rave with enthusiasm about is the case of photojournalist Jonas Bendiksen, whose book full of post-produced films is written about by Adam Mazur. What is postdigital photography? In this issue, it is a spectrum of approaches, contexts, and technological aspects. From DeepFace and use of artificial intelligence for automatic image retrieval, through the (un)hidden carbon footprint of data, fake news and the notion of post-truth, to manipulation through post-production, to artistic approaches from home-office desktop documents or wild post-internet aesthetics or lapidary mixing of photos into liquid mucus. A rich selection.