Author: Andreas Lange

The exhibition ‘PROW:ESSE – Gender Diversity in Digital Arts and Craft’ premiered at the HackThePromise Festival in Basel at Sep. 27th until 29th 2024. It is presenting the work of six highly talented demosceners in a completely new way.
The demoscene is one of the very few hobbyist communities that can easily provide the stories of multiple generations of gender minorities in tech, highly capable in their respective fields, who have embarked on the journey to make a living from their creativity. On that base curator Shana Marinitsch wanted to explore how gender expectations impact the access to digital crafts, trades and communities.

The featured artists are

• Faith aka Sylvia Ritter, professional illustrator, outstandingly gifted in drawing unique animals, playing with light, colour and details.
• Aldroid aka Alex Shaw, programmer at the intersection of art and high tech, as well as skilled firestarter for creative communities
• Luisa of Poo-Brain and Rabenauge, a jane-of-all-trades in graphics design from ANSI-Art and Pixel Graphics to 3D-Modelling and Animation
• Violet aka Violet Suchomski, whose versatility certainly teaches the audience that you can create art (and racoons!) on any hardware under the sun
• Flopine aka Florine Fouquart, household name in the Shader Coding community, role model to many live coders as well as one of the first waves heralding an upsurge of new, fresh and more diverse coders
• Lucid aka Lena Kilkka, electronic music composer, most famed for her soundtracks for Still and WAKE demos, mixing and experimenting with different mediums, instruments and styles

In interviews, texts and discussions the cis-, trans* and non-binary demosceners share their thoughts, experiences, but also recommendations and messages to people just starting out in the arts.

Read a detailed report about the show at the website of the producer of the exhibition Echtzeit- Digitale Kultur. There you can also find information, how the exhibition can be booked for future stagings.

[Foto by Mario Spuler, 2024 – CC BY-SA 4.0]

The Swiss demoscene now has its place on the list in the “Performing arts” section:

https://www.lebendige-traditionen.ch/tradition/en/home/traditions/demoszene-und-digitale-kreativitaet.html

There is also the dossiers available in German, French and Italian. It was compiled by Gleb Albert, Andry Joos, Andre Kudra, Shana Marinitisch and Yannick Wey.

Two events on the future of Art of Coding

Last weekend, the AoC community met at Evoke to discuss the next steps for an international nomination. The discussion took place against the backdrop of the feedback from the German UNESCO experts in June, who confirmed their fundamental openness to supporting an international nomination. As it was clear to the participants that an international nomination would benefit the scene on various levels, the initiative for international recognition will be continued. Details of the meeting can be found in the AoC Discord.

And tomorrow, AoC in the person of Tobias Kopka and Andreas Lange will be involved in a panel discussion to open up the perspective on other digital cultures beyond the demoscene. The title of the talk ‘Digital cultural heritage. Where does UNESCO stand?‘ and it will take place at gamescom congress Thu. 22. 11:30 am.

Other panelists are Prof. Dr. Eva-Maria Seng, who is Rector of the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart. Besides other roles she is Jury of North Rhine-Westphalia for the Evaluation of Applications to the Status of Intangible Cultural Heritage and since 2015 chairwoman of the jury and Representative of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany in the Reflection Group EU and Cultural Heritage as well as in the Council of Europe in the matter of Cultural Heritage. And Thorolfur Beck Kristjonsson, who as Co-founder of CCP and original creator of EVE online is an expert of persistant multi player online gaming cultures.

The “Preserving the Demoscene” project involves the digitization of the history and present of the demoscene, as well as the production of a documentary film about this phenomenon. A key component is the interviewing of demoscene enthusiasts. The project enhances the visibility of the demoscene and the availability and accessibility of cultural heritage materials. The “Preserving the Demoscene” project has received special funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland to support the accessibility and preservation of digital cultural heritage, services for public libraries, and the digitization of intangible cultural heritage.

In the “Preserving the Demoscene” project, materials related to the demoscene and especially its internal communication are collected and digitized. Both old and new members of the demoscene community are interviewed, forming an understanding of what the demoscene was like in the past and what it is now. The project aims to raise awareness of the demo hobby as intangible cultural heritage.

Based on the digitized materials and interviews, a documentary film will be produced, examining the hobby of demos from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The documentary aims to capture an authentic and honest portrayal of this unique culture and community, as well as the significance of the hobby to its members. The documentary will be filmed at Finnish demo events during the summer and autumn of 2024 and will serve as a culturally valuable record, making the demoscene visible to more than just its members.

The project is implemented by the Finnish Postal Museum and the Tampere Historical Museums as part of their joint national responsibility task, specializing in communications, gaming, postal services, and digital life. The Finnish Museum of Games is particularly involved. All the exhibitions of the project museums are located in the Vapriikki Museum Center. The “Preserving the Demoscene” project is carried out in collaboration with demo enthusiasts and will continue until the end of 2024.

For more information, contact Anne-Mari Musturi, project worker, Postal Museum, anne-mari [dot] musturi [at] postimuseo [dot] fi

Congratulations to the Moleman project, which just met the goal of their crowdfunding campaign even 5 days before it ends!

Stamps Back, the 5th episode of the Moleman documentary series, is a 144-minute film about the golden age of Hungarian video gaming and the formation of the Hungarian demoscene in the 80s and 90s, which you can watch for free on YouTube. More than 76 hours of interviews were conducted for the film, which is a true document of the Hungarian home computer life in the 80s and 90s.

While the movie shows the richness and creativity of the demoscene with many examples and personal experiences the success of the crowdfunding campaign is an other impressive sign of the livingness and attractiveness of the scene.

AND: Since 5 days are left don’t miss the chance to grab a collectors edition copy or support this great project in other attractive ways. Beyond being a documentation about the scene it’s a treasure trove for the history of east European creative computing in general, too.

https://fundrazr.com/stampsback