| HN Mirror

As an 30 year-old underground-ish art movement rooted deeply if not almost entirely online, the demoscene is not exactly one with much printed source material or reporting (I've managed to be interviewed on TV once though at an event in Quebec)

   http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/10-of-the-coolest-demoscene-creations-715166

but has had a relatively profound impact on the tech industry

e.g. the game industry in particular is stuffed full of demosceners

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remedy_Entertainment
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Games
   http://www.spore.com/ftl
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PopCap_Games

etc.

(as well as a few others like the music biz)

   http://www.pelulamu.net/timbaland/
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunz
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Sega
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bj%C3%B8rn_Lynne
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothomstates

nearly every soft-mp3 player supports scene music formats (.mod, .s3m, .mtm, .669, .xm, .it, etc.) or have extensions to support them

The recent resurgence in pixel art I find amusing since the demoscene has been carrying that torch for decades:

   http://gfxzone.planet-d.net/frames.html

I've been part of the scene for over 20 years myself and my sources are pretty much all primary, personal contacts, etc. Influence-wise, tons of tech industry folks got their start hacking away on 'scene projects and bring a particular style and set of associated concepts with them.

Print e-Sources though may include some of the scene-zines, a handful of books, Wired has run a few articles from time-to-time, but most of the scene exists either as web sites or chat logs to be honest.

   http://www.scene.org/
   http://www.demoscene.us/
   http://www.pouet.net/
   http://www.scenemusic.net/demovibes/
   http://datunnel.blogspot.com/

As a movement, the scene has a pretty cohesive culture, style, ethos, language, etc. One way to think of it is that it's the Liberal Arts alternative to the Open Source movement (if you consider the Open Source movement as the Hard Engineering/Science alternative to the Artsy Demoscene). It has its sub-cultures and there are various geographic differences -- dialects -- if you will to the scene. Not entirely unlike the difference between say, Korean Hip-Hop and North American Hip-Hop.

Thousands of people attend the events (called parties) which are loosely organized as competitions but are really just a chance to show off your creations to loads of like-minded folks.

   http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4143/4868635967_19ec3ddc7c_z.jpg

Like most art movements, the work ranges from amateurish to sublime

   http://www.demoscene.tv/page.php?id=172&lang=uk&vsmaction=view_prod&id_prod=13947

(keep in mind this is realtime, one of the core foundations of the demoscene is for productions to run real-time)

...is often abstract and at times quite evocative. videos of tons of productions here:

   http://www.demoscene.tv/

So when I sit there, on wikipedia, and see this page

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Tracker_musicians

I really really want to provide some content, but I know from past experience it's not worth the effort or time. Which is a shame since I believe I would have a lot to offer in fleshing out this quite vibrant art scene.