Out To Lunch

This site-specific video installation imagines screensavers as the computer’s conscious dreamstate and uses imagery from this now-defunct software to frame daydreaming as a valuable and generative function.

In the 1990s, screensaver programmers quickly realized that other than staying perpetual motion, screensavers really were not restricted by any functional use, and they quickly became a space for experimental, surreal, nonsensical play. The aimlessness of these little artworks still feel wonderfully at odds with our association of computers being the ultimate tools of speed, production, and usefulness.

The act of daydreaming is often unfairly characterized as idle or indulgent; wasted time in a personal dimension incompatible with our shared reality. But psychologists’ theories about the true function of daydreams say otherwise, asserting that the Default Network Mode (the part of the brain that recalls memories and creates meaning) lights up when the mind is permitted to wander but does not light up when it is hyper-focused. A core part of what makes us human is our ability to generate meaning from our experiences and environments. One of the ways in which we do this is through lucid dreams. Just like the human mind melds memories and real-time environmental information to form new narratives in a daydream, Out To Lunch resurfaces familiar screensaver themes from the past and fuses them with new illustrations inspired by the screen’s surroundings to create a fantastical, painterly dreamscape.

Ultimately, this installation is intended to serve as a creative respite for workers making the transition between professional and personal headspaces in the 150 North Riverside lobby, constructing a meditative environment that allows for intentional disconnection from task-oriented thought patterns.