Bliss (image)
Coordinates: 38°14′56″N 122°24′37″W / 38.248966°N 122.410269°W
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Bliss is the name of a Windows bitmap developed by Stephane Couture & Marc-Antoine Tanguay. This image is included with Microsoft Windows XP, produced from a photograph of a landscape in Sonoma County, California, southeast of Sonoma Valley near the site of the old Clover Stornetta Inc. Dairy.[1] The image contains rolling green hills and a blue sky with cumulus and cirrus clouds. The image is used as the default computer wallpaper for the Luna theme of Windows XP. In the Danish version of Windows XP, the wallpaper is named Ireland, despite the image being taken in California.[2]
The photograph was taken by professional photographer Charles O'Rear,[1][3] a resident of St. Helena, Napa County, for digital-design company HighTurn. According to O'Rear, the photograph was not digitally enhanced or manipulated in any way.[4]
O'Rear has also taken photographs for Bill Gates' private Seattle stock photography company Corbis and Napa Valley photographs for the May 1979 National Geographic Magazine article Napa, Valley of the Vine. Although O'Rear's focus was on photographing winemaking in the Napa Valley, the hill in Bliss didn't have grapevines when the photograph was taken in 1996, 5 years before the release of Windows XP. The photograph was taken on the side of the highway 12/121[map 1] by a hand held medium format camera. The approximate location is 3101 Fremont Dr. (Sonoma Hwy.), Sonoma, CA. The coordinates for the hill are 38.250124,-122.410817.
O'Rear's photograph inspired Windows XP's $200 million advertising campaign Yes you can, by the San Francisco division of New York City advertising company McCann-Erickson. The campaign was launched on television on ABC (America) during one of ABC Sports's Monday Night Football games of the 2001 NFL season. The television commercials included Madonna's Ray of Light song, whose TV rights cost Microsoft about $14 million.[5][6][7][8]
In November 2006, artist collaboration Goldin+Senneby visited the site in Sonoma Valley where the Bliss image was taken, re-photographing the same view ten years later. Their work After Microsoft[9] was first shown in the exhibition "Paris was Yesterday" at gallery La Vitrine in April 2007 [10] and has later been exhibited at Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo[citation needed], and 300m3 in Gothenburg.[11]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Turner, Paul (22 February 2004). "No view of Palouse from Windows". The Slice. http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20080120032511/http://www.spokesmanreview.com/local/story_txt.asp?date=022204&ID=s1490284. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
- ^ "Ever wonder where the Windows XP default wallpaper came from?". The Next Web. 28/08/2011. http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2011/08/28/ever-wonder-where-the-windows-xp-default-wallpaper-came-from. Retrieved January 20, 2012.
- ^ Younger, Carolyn (18 January 2010). "Windows XP desktop screen is a Napa image". Napa Valley Register. http://www.napavalleyregister.com/news/local/article_7703c8b2-03e9-11df-bb34-001cc4c03286.html. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
- ^ Messieh, Nancy (28 August 2011). "Ever wonder where the Windows XP default wallpaper came from?" (in English). thenextweb.com. The Next Web. http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2011/08/28/ever-wonder-where-the-windows-xp-default-wallpaper-came-from/. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
- ^ Saunders, Christopher (16 October 2001). "Microsoft Hopes "Ray of Light" Makes XP Shine". ClickZ. http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=904871. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
- ^ "Windows XP takes to the air; Microsoft pushes new operating system with ads targeting both business and consumer markets". Goliath. http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-3832365/Windows-XP-takes-to-the.html.
- ^ Thurrott, Paul (11 October 2001). "Windows XP Marketing: Yes You Can". Windows IT Pro. http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/22875/22875.html. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
- ^ The Complete Windows XP
- ^ "After Microsoft". Goldin+Senneby. 5 April 2007. http://www.goldinsenneby.com/gs/?p=81. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
- ^ "Paris was Yesterday". Hanne's Art and Culture Blog. Hanne Mugaas. 2 April 2007. http://www.hanne-mugaas.com/artblog/2007/04/paris_was_yesterday.html. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
- ^ "300m3 Art Space - History". 300m3.com. 2010 [last update]. http://www.300m3.com/sidor/sidor_2008/2008_8.html. Retrieved August 30, 2011.
- Location on the map
- ^ "CA-12/CA-121 to 12 California 121, Sonoma, CA 95476". Google Maps. Google. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=CA-12%2FCA-121&daddr=CA-12%2FCA-121&hl=en&geocode=FabERwIdqsq1-A%3B&mra=ls&sll=38.251932,-122.374306&sspn=0.136962,0.2211&ie=UTF8&ll=38.247887,-122.381516&spn=0.136969,0.2211&t=h&z=12. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
