Workstation95 is the synthesis of two projects - Do You Want to Feel Something? (by me, the sgt) and Iteration’s Vapor Workstations with Illumixis. The connection between these two projects may not be immediately apparent, but they weave together into one pseudo-nostalgic body of work.
One of the surprises of working on a Windows95 themed project was to sort of discover an implicit world behind the system images Microsoft (and later other third parties) created. They have familiar icons in 2d pixels, but they also had a collection of graphics and icons and system images that were consistently in an isometric perspective - graphics that implied an entire pixel-rendered sort of 3D world. I realized just how rich that world was while exploring all the install wizards and setup operations for software and tools as I searched for graphics. Creating as complete of a collection in a PSD of native-resolution graphics from every software company that copied Microsoft’s isometric style and fleshed out that little universe. The default graphics and some rare finds and some little custom tweaks became a part of DYWTFS that I called “Everything In Its Place In the Network” - a giant Where’s Waldo-esque poster broken up into desktop sized pieces.
The vibe from that 95-era stuff was that the internet was coming: there are connections, network lines, globes everywhere. Phones and modems and cables and so on - everything felt like it belonged in some kind of giant computer network that we too had a place in. That felt like a very good metaphor for organizing your emotional life: maturing into understanding that you and your feelings (both good and bad) have a place in your overall network.
There were simply too many themes and too much nuance to discuss all of the meaning of DYWTFS in any write-up. What I wanted to do, though, was to find a way to explore the isometric little setup world and let it mirror a much more narrow real life theme: our own desktops. Expanding and growing and making modular the whole world of Windows95/98 setup graphics and tools starts to stimulate the imagination or maybe the memory: are you old enough to remember beige mediocre computers you had to work on? Did you ever have a job where the mainframe or server racks were within sight while you tinkered on your machine? Did you have a stack of VHS tapes you were scrubbing through - or DAT cassette machines? I asked my friend Tartaria Archivist if he would help me build a system for integrating our new objects and graphics and mixing and matching them with the found graphics from any number of Windows program setups. Trying to blur the lines between what was authentic era software tool graphic and what is art. (lol).
What’s more - what about the whole world of fetishized nostalgia for that era, or a fictional one that is sort of like it? I could only think of one artist who had really shared that interest in little workstation renderings from fantastical imagination and that was Iteration with her fantastic AI-utilizing workflow in creating Vapor Workstations. Since I was creating sort of glum imaginary ordinary desktops, I asked if she would consider letting her collection be akin to one of the creative additions to Microsoft’s graphics and blend in isometric pixelized Vapor Workstations that reflected a complex paradox that is built-in to our desktop relationships: we both love and hate the spot where we work and play on computers.
“Workstation” is a fun word because it’s genuinely a part of the old era of Windows, with Windows NT Workstation, but also it’s kind of funny that you can call something as fun and cool as one of these Vaporwave creations a “workstation” and still be accurate. Are desktops for work or for fun? If they’re for both - how can we distinguish when we’ve had enough and should do something else? What else is it you want to do, and where?
The collection was being built just as Frames were taking off on Warpcast, so I asked around looking for developers to help us build a neat workaround to mint through a Frame, and pfeffunit connected with me. Mixed in with the previewing version that Frames will support we added some very overt DOS/BIOS/SETUP type screens that are meant to echo the DYWTFS setup sections. That is, meta-modernist style directness combined with playfulness. In fact, there’s a few DYWTFS themes and styles that make cameos.
The remaining major task was to make the project actually comment on something in a meaningful way. We did this with the text selection. Each time a workstation is created, it looks at the mood values we have assigned the different parts of your workstation and decides how positive or negative your mood must be and chooses from our library of pre-written texts (which we did write ourselves). The texts are short and hopefully a little cute - but they’re meant to be one or two sentences that encapsulate a mood somewhat indirectly. Little things you may have thought or said to yourself at your own little workstation that reflect the complex variety of feelings you have about your spot where you work (and live). The results, so far, have been a huge collection of engaging little tiny workstation compositions that we, as the creators, are also excited to explore and see just what kind of sentiments match what kind of desktops and imagine ourselves living and working where they are.
While the Frames experience is meant to explore that new format with previewing and mixing in the setup screens, the main site is just for people who want to also collect and see some of these while they are minting - but something more like batch collecting and blind-minting from the main site.
Come see the cool art and think - if not seriously, then half-seriously about your workstation. Our mint site should be world-class when it’s finished thanks to pfeffunit’s wizardry.
