The desktop documentary format is much more flexible and versatile than you’d think at first sight. Sure, most such videos (and feature films or tv series that use the same conceit) stick to a relatively straightforward recording of the computer’s desktop, skipping between windows and sometimes adding a voice over. But there are great examples that show how the approach can be expanded beyond these basics. Johannes Binotto focused on his actual desktop, not a virtual one, in his Desktop Documentary. And this playful and irreverent addition to the genre trades in the sleek and modern PC or Mac desktops for a very vintage one.

Belgian interdisciplinary artist Benna Gaean Maris styled her video as if it were made on a Commodore Amiga 500 from the late 1980s. Pixel fonts and garish colors. Low resolution video with outmoded stencil effects. Even the instruments and distorted voices on the musical soundtrack sound like they were home-made on a cheap consumer synthesizer. Because, yes, Maris’ desktop video actually doubles as a music video. The song is a parody of Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles, itself a relic of the 1980s. (It was released at the end of 1979 but it is lodged in our collective memories as the first song ever to be broadcast on MTV in 1981).

The retro visuals that make this video stand out are no mere gimmick but its whole point. Maris harkens back to the early days of the internet and fondly remembers a time when the world wide web was still a wild wild west where creativity roamed freely. That early promise has long been reined in by corporate greed and capitalist control of the web. The Buggles’ “Pictures came and broke your heart” is replaced beat for beat by Maris’ “Pop-ups popped and broke your site”.

This is nostalgia used as a tool for critique. The antiquated visuals and the obsolete lay-out are a stark reminder of the liveliness and unfettered imagination of the early days of home computing. An inventiveness that has now largely disappeared behind sleek interfaces. And ditto desktops.