DigiTale: 2D Convolution - Screensavers

DigiTale: 2D Convolution - Screensavers
Marjan Colletti (2001).

On an interface, convolution can only be simulated (mimicry). The superposition principle assumes the displacement by more interferences to equal the net sum of the displacements produced individually. 

 - The intraface as the abstract representational and constructive plane, the thing to interact with. The intraface as pliable and manipulable, and reactive thing.

- On the flat 3D surface, the software Flamingo emanates waves.

- Major properties of waves (length, amplitude, damping and phase) can be edited. 

- Alas! Geometrically, the object remains a flat 3D plane. It is just a representation of waves.

2D convolution is best described by screensavers. Screensavers are part of the computer’s own system architecture and appear after the computer has been on standby for a certain period of time; naïvely said, when the computer goes to sleep (or reverie). Most screensavers replace the desktop image by rendering their own animated spatial properties on the screen. As argued by Lynn, the term animation should not be confused with the term motion: ‘While motion implies movement and action, animation implies the evolution of a form and its shaping forces […].’i Early versions of screensavers animate dots, lines and splines on the screen level. The Starfield Simulation screensaver, for example, simulates a flight through outer space (black background) on a straight trajectory by rendering a multitude of bypassing stars (white pixels) on a radial motion pattern. No dots will ever collapse within the screen.

[Images: Screenshots from the Starfield Simulation Screensaver, Mystify Screensaver, Bezier Screensaver; © Microsoft Windows, never intersecting with the screen].

On the contrary, with the aid of the Holographic Screen Saver software we are capable of creating screensaver animations, in which digital matter touches, presses and kisses the screen. The software ‘generates designs of waves and swirls of color based on the same techniques used to create real-life holograms. The waves and swirls are technically known as an interference pattern. An interference pattern is created when light waves interact like those from a laser.’ii Despite being controlled by parameters, these liquid simulations, with their inherited forces of waves being exerted on the surface of the interface, still permit the user control over the output.

i Lynn, Animate Form, p 9.
ii Robert Piontek, ‘Introduction to the Holographic Screen Saver v2’ in Help (Virtual-Creations, Holographic Screen Saver v2.23, 1999-2000).