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DVD Screensaver

The DVD screensaver with the boring parts taken out.

2026

Artist statement

Everybody has watched the DVD screensaver, and nobody made it for anyone to watch. It existed to keep a TV left on from burning the logo into the screen. Somehow whole rooms of people ended up watching it drift toward a corner and groaning when it missed by a few pixels, which was almost every time.

I called my version Nothing But Corners, because that's all it does. I aim every bounce, so the logo lands in a corner every single time. Click and you get another logo, then another, until the screen fills up with logos landing in corners. Turn the sound on and every corner gets a thump and a cheer, kids yelling "yay" or a round of applause.

Cory Arcangel's Super Mario Clouds hacked a Mario cartridge until only the scrolling sky was left. Both pieces take software everybody already knows and remove part of it.

You were waiting for something else when you watched the real one, a movie to start or someone to find the remote, and it happened to be on. Mine has nothing to wait for, and every logo hits.

Watch it

Click inside to add another logo. Open it full screen →

How it's made

JavaScript · Canvas · Web Audio · Playwright

Aiming a bounce took a lot more math than a joke should need. I unfold the screen into a grid of mirrored copies, so a path that bounces off the walls becomes a straight line, then aim that line at a corner in the grid and throw out any path that touches a wall too close to a corner. The code is on GitHub.

UNFOLDED FOLDED BACK 3 bounces, then a corner 3 screens across, 2 up: one straight line UNFOLD mirror it over every wall AIM at a corner up to 3 screens REJECT bounces within ¼ of a corner FOLD BACK each crossing is a bounce
UNFOLDED FOLDED BACK 3 across, 2 up: one straight line 3 bounces, then a corner UNFOLD mirror it over every wall AIM at a corner up to 3 screens REJECT bounces within ¼ of a corner FOLD BACK each crossing is a bounce

Lineage

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