Demoscene bibliography

Bertelsons, Boris; Rasch, Matthias; Hoffmann, Jan Erik (1995): PC Underground. Unconventional Programming Topics. Abacus.BibTeX

This book deals with various "underground programming topics" such as assembly language, VGA register tweaking and copy protection. Originally published in Germany by Data Becker and then in the USA by Abacus. Does not contain any explicit demo references but is obviously influenced by the demo and cracker programming techniques.

Burger, Boris; Paulovic, Ondrej; Hasan, Milos (2002): Realtime Visualization Methods in the Demoscene. In Proceedings of the Central European Seminar on Computer Graphics 2002, Budmerice, Slovakia, pp. 205-218.BibTeX

Members of the demo group Peon present the techniques behind their three demos, Dream, Expiration and Symbolic Expression. In addition they provide a brief overview of the demo scene and its development during the years. Available online: http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/studentwork/CESCG/CESCG-2002/BBurger/

Borzyskowski, George (1996): The Hacker Demo Scene and Its Cultural Artifacts. Curtin University of Technology.BibTeX

A study conducted for the School of Design at Curtin University of Technology, undertaken from 1992 to 1994. Probably the oldest, and since it has been available online for quite some time, the most referenced work around. We've yet to discover if this is a thesis, but it was presented somewhere called the Cybermind Conference 1996. Borzyskowski draws upon a heavy corpus of 765 demos, but his analysis remains quite vague and all-inclusive. You can read the work online at http://www.scheib.net/play/demos/what/borzyskowski/ .

Huuskonen, Juha (2004): The Art of Defining Software Culture: The Benevolent Dictators of the Read_me Festival. Framework 2/2004, FRAME Finnish Fund for Art Exchange.BibTeX

In his article Huuskonen brings up the connection between VJ culture, demo scene and underground media art. He even dares to mention that such communities are often closed and self-sufficient: something that's overlooked in most articles written about the scene. The online-version is available here: http://www.framework.fi/2_2004/focus/artikkelit/huuskonen.html .

Molinari, Maria (2002): Si scrive demo, si legge arte. Hacker Journal 15/2002, pp. 10-13. BibTeX

A four-page article about the demo scene. Unfortunately this is in Italian only so we can't comment too deeply. Seems to be an ordinary overview of the phenomenon with some connections to hacking and cyberculture. Available online: http://www.dvara.net/HK/HK-Writes/Scenademo.asp

Nordli, Hege (2003a): The Gathering - Computer Parties as Means for Gender Inclusion. IST-2000-26329 SIGIS, Deliverable Number: D04, 2003.BibTeX

A sociological study of gender inclusion strategies, conducted at three Gathering parties. The empirical material is a combination of observation and interviews, which Nordli describes mostly in a bottom-up fashion. The paper is a part of the dissertation of Nordli (2003b). Available online at http://www.rcss.ed.ac.uk/sigis/public/displaydoc/full/D04_2.01_NTNU1 after registration.

Nordli, Hege (2003b): The Net is not Enough: Searching for the Female Hacker. Norwegian University of Science and Technology.BibTeX

A doctoral dissertation for the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Nordli studied the essence of female computer enthousiasts for a few years and then documented her findings in this dissertation. Not everything in it concerns demo scene, but there's a whole chapter on computer parties for example. She divides the female enthousiasts to three sub-groups: IRC-babes, professionals and geek.grrls that all have their own characteristics. Demo scene has traditionally been a male hobby and here you can find several contributing factors why it is so. On the whole Nordli's work can be seen as a continuation of older hacker studies conducted by Sherry Turkle and Steven Levy.

Pappalardo, Davide (2004): The Scene and Its Art. University of Catania.BibTeX

A part of a larger research originally conducted in Italian and then translated to English. First a short introduction to demoscene and then a collection of several influential demos annotated. The style is surprisingly subjective considering it's a scientific publication.

Polgar, Tamas (2005): Freax. The brief history of the demoscene. Volume 1. CSW Werlag.BibTeX

The large-scale scene history book by Tomcat/Madwizards. His research started already in 1996 and culminated in this book. The first volume contains the history of Commodore 64 and Amiga scenes. In the book you'll find numerous screen shots, interviews and analysis of important productions and parties. It is especially refreshing to get a glance of the East European scene since it's often been omitted in other histories. To fully comprehend the book you're required to have some prior knowledge of the demo culture already, which was the original goal as well: from sceners to sceners. From a scientific point of view there's a slight problem with the prosaic style since Polgar seldom mentions his sources -- occasionally it's hard to distinguish between hard facts and scene gossip. Regardless of its minor flaws this is currently the scene book and should not be missed by anyone doing research on the subject. Volume 2 about the PC and alternative scenes is planned for 2006.

Shatz, Phil (1993): Walkthroughs and Flybys CD. Waite Group Press.BibTeX

A collection of various demo-related things on one CD, accompanied by a book. The great variety of contents can be somewhat confusing: in addition to demos you'll find FLI animations and curious commercial demos. The book on the whole is very catalogue-like and there's very little analysis on any of the topics presented. Suprisingly, Walkthroughs and Flybys was a small-scale bestseller with over 50000 copies sold.

Shatz, Phil (1994): Modeling the Dream CD. Walkthroughs and Flybys II. Waite Group Press.BibTeX

A sequel to Shatz's previous book and very similar in content. This time in addition to the demos and animations there is a chapter on 3D Studio.

Shor, Shirley & Eyal, Aviv (2002): DEMOing :: A new emerging art form or just another digital craft? rhizome.org.BibTeX

An introductionary article written by the New Yorkian artists Shirley Shor and Aviv Eyals. The authors want to show that demos are unique audio-visual virtual constructs with deep formalistic and aesthetic roots in the computer underground movement of the 80's. In a true demoscene introductionary fashion, the tone of the text is very enthousiastic, but it does make a number of interesting connections e.g. to hiphop culture. The article has been published on the Art-E-Zine rhizome.org. You can read the work online at http://shirley.friskit.com/text/demoing.htm .

Tasajärvi, Lassi (2003b): demoskene.katastro.fi - The Exhibition. Arsis 1/2003, pp. 9.BibTeX

A brief introduction to demo culture as a phenomenon plus an ad of the demo exhibition held in Kiasma. Available online at: http://edmund.taiteenkeskustoimikunta.fi/download/Arsis_verkko.pdf?lngDoc_id=835 .

Tasajärvi, Lassi (ed.); Stamnes, Bent; Schustin, Mikael (2004): Demoscene: the Art of Real-Time. Helsinki: Even Lake Studios & katastro.fi.BibTeX

Declaring itself "THE FIRST BOOK EVER ABOUT THE DEMOSCENE CULTURE!", this book accompanies the Tasajärvi curated demoskene.katastro.fi exhibition (2003). Inside are an introduction to demo culture, a couple of interviews, discussion of tracker software and an article about the Gathering party. Also dubbed "the demoscene art book", the demos explained and screenshots are the same as exhibited, so you'll get to see the works of katastro.fi members' past groups, but that's all. A description is available online at http://www.evenlakestudios.fi/books . There was a planned sequel in Finnish, but according to Tasajärvi, it has been delayed.