Demoscene bibliography

Faler, Matti (2001): Johdatus demosceneen. In Sihvonen, Tanja (ed.): Sähköä, Säpinää, Wapinaa: Risteilyjä teknologian kulttuurihistoriassa. Turku: Turun yliopiston historian laitoksen julkaisuja nr. 59.BibTeX

An Introduction to Demoscene. A student work for a University of Turku course whose papers got published. Considering what it is, a surprisingly clear and well argued introduction, who makes a plausible comparison between the demoscene and graffiti scene. Short extracts of demoscene peoples' speech are also analyzed. Sähköä, Säpinää, Wapinaa could be available in technologically oriented libraries Finland-wide. There is one copy at the main library of Helsinki University of Technology.

Haavisto, Maija (2001): Diskmagit haastavat lukijan. Enter 7/2001, pp. 72.BibTeX

Diskmags challenge the reader. An introduction to disk magazines. Apparently aimed for non-scene people but still contains some slang that requires previous knowledge on the culture. Available online at http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0102122/articles/hugrez02.jpg .

Inkinen, Sam; Salmi, Markku (1996): Media aseena ja työkaluna - hakkereita, teknohippejä ja koneromantiikkaa uuden median verkoissa. In Tarkka, Minna; Hintikka, Kari A.; Mäkelä, Asko (eds.): Johdatus uuteen mediaan. Edita, pp. 90-91.BibTeX

Media as a weapon and a tool. In this article there's one-page overview of the demoscene. Demos are presented in the context of special technical subcultures.

Kauppinen, Jukka (2005): Demoskenen alakulttuurista nousee suomalaisen it:n kärki. Aamulehti 7.7.2005, pp. 20.BibTeX

The top names of Finnish IT industry rise from the demo scene subculture. Jukka O. Kauppinen is likely the most popular informant when it comes to Finnish microcomputer history research. Here he provides yet another overview of the scene. The tone of the article is quite admiring: the scene is seen as a pre-school for game companies and top positions in the IT industry -- a view that appears in numerous other articles as well.

Kurki, Riikka (2002): WE ARE! Tutkimus postmodernista identiteetistä sukupuolittuneissa yhteisöissä. Lahti: Lahden ammattikorkeakoulu (Lahti Polytechnic).BibTeX

A final thesis about postmodern identity in the gender role communities. Draws a comparative analysis between the demoscene and the decoscene, a girls' community that swaps decorative friendshipbooks. Written for the faculty of Multimedia Design in Institute of Design of Lahti polytechnic. Available online at http://www.pingstate.nu/riikka/tutkimus/.

Lönnblad, Hanna (1997): Kahden tietokonedemon vertaileva analyysi. Musiikin Suunta (Musical Currents). vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 28-34.BibTeX

A Comparative Analysis of Two Computer Demos, an article that resembles Lönnblad's (1998) final thesis. Available online at http://elektra.helsinki.fi/se/m/0780-0703/19/2/kahdenti.pdf , but you can only open the file at Helsinki University. The author's become married and is now named Hanna Kaivola.

Lönnblad, Hanna (1998): Tietokonedemot kulttuurina ja musiikin harrastuksen muotona. Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto (University of Helsinki).BibTeX

Computer Demos as Culture and Form of Musical Hobby. A final thesis for the Department of Musicology at Helsinki University. Used to be online, but is nowadays gone; the only copy we know of resides in the library of the corresponding department. The author's become married and is now named Hanna Kaivola.

Roininen, Tarja (1998): Demoscene: että tietyt aineettomat arvot ja tavat yhdistävät joukkoa ihmisiä. Lapin yliopisto (University of Lapland).BibTeX

Demoscene - That Certain Immaterial Values and Customs Unite a Group of People. A final thesis for the Audiovisual Media Culture programme in University of Lapland. Roininen has a peculiar starting point for her work: she is the mother of a demo scener who got interested in her son's hobby. The thesis includes a rather comprehensive overview of the scene as well as some analysis on the social side of things. All things considered, Roininen manages to make several exact observations on the scene as an "outsider" but does not get very far from the statements of the informants.

Saarikoski, Petri (2001a): Valtavirtaa vastaan - Demoscene suomalaisen kotimikroilun historiassa. Lähikuva 3/2001, pp. 54-65.BibTeX

Against the Mainstream - Demoscene in the History of Finnish Home Computing. A brief article that relates the demoscene to studies of digital art, youth culture, hacker ethics and domestification of home computers. Includes plenty of interesting references most of which we've made available here. Released in the audiovisual culture journal Lähikuva, which should be available in Finnish libraries; we found ours in the Social Science Library of Helsinki University.

Saarikoski, Petri (2001b): Pioneerien leluista kulutuselektroniikaksi. Suomalainen kotimikroharrastus tietotekniikan murroksessa 1980-luvun alusta 1990-luvun puoliväliin. Turku: Turun yliopisto (University of Turku).BibTeX

From Pioneers' Toys to Consumer Electronics, the licentiate thesis of Petri Saarikoski. Concerns the Finnish home computer hobby from the early 80's to mid 90's. Available online at http://users.utu.fi/petsaari/lisuri/lisuri.pdf , including the image appendix . This is not altogether about the scene, but section 9, "Against the mainstream" and subsection 10.2, "computer enthousiasts and sub-cultures" definitely are. Section 6, "The outlaws of the computer world" deals with crackers and thus provides additional information on the roots of the Finnish scene.

Saarikoski, Petri (2004): Koneen lumo. Mikrotietokoneharrastus Suomessa 1970-luvulta 1990-luvun puoliväliin. Turku: Turun yliopisto (University of Turku).BibTeX

The Charm of the Machine. Computer hobby in Finland from 1970's to mid 1990's. In his PhD thesis Saarikoski presents the history of Finnish computer hobbyists as well as the relevant technical and social factors. Very likely a nostalgic read for people who were involved with home computers in the eighties. In addition to several references to the demo scene there's even a whole section (21 pages) dealing with the subject. This is probably the cheapest place where you can buy the book: http://www.jyu.fi/nykykulttuuri/abstr_fi.htm#83 .

Tasajärvi, Lassi (2003a): Vain muutaman kilotavun tähden. AVEK 2/2003, pp. 38-40.BibTeX

For the Sake of Couple of Kilobytes is an article written for a publication of The Finnish Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture (AVEK). Includes a short history of the scene, endorses the demoskene.katastro.fi exhibition (2003) and introduces tracker software. Written much in the same spirit as Tasajärvi et al (2004) and uses some similar text portions too. Available online at http://www.evenlakestudios.fi/aveklehti0203.pdf .