So you’ve heard something about the demoscene. You know that it’s a collection of highly talented digital artists from around the world who produce mind blowing demonstrations on all sorts of computer hardware.

Now you want to know more.. more about the demos and about the people behind them, but you don’t know where to start?

Well you’ve come to the right place!

Us dedicated people here at Demoscene Outreach have all joined up for a mission.. a mission to spread the gospel of the demoscene to the entire world. Whether you’re an artist, a designer, a musician, a programmer or just someone who appreciates the special brand of underground digital art that the demoscene has to offer, we’ll tell you everything you need to know. And once we’ve taught you all that we can, we’ll show you how you can take things to the next level and get involved yourself!

We’ll be bringing you news and in-depth articles as well as pointing you at the very best that the demoscene has to offer. What’s more, all this content will be geared towards you – the newcomer to the demoscene. Take our hand and stick with us, we’ll look after you!

And now that you’ve found us, stay tuned! We’ve got so many exciting things that we’re just dying to tell you about..

A demo-related licentiate thesis called "Computer Demos - What Makes Them Tick?" was published on June 14th. It deals with the various practices and artifacts of the community and connects them to other historical developments. Downloadable here: http://www.kameli.net/demoresearch2/reunanen-licthesis.pdf
[Submitted by Marq]

SIGGRAPH has a new program (since 2009) where real-time graphics are shown before the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater, on the big screen in the biggest room in the convention center. The intent is to become the showcase for the best real-time graphics, just as the Electronic Theater is the showcase for the best prerendered graphics.

If you're interested in submitting your demo, visit http://www.siggraph.org/s2010/for_submitters/live_real-time_demos. The deadline is April 28th, so there's just about a week left.
[Submitted by ryg]

The Filmfest Dresden focuses mainly on short fiction and animated films but recently opens up for new media as well ... and so for the gems of the Demoscene ...

Here are the details: Demoscene @ 22nd Filmfest Dresden - Tue. 2010-04-20 - Sun. 2010-04-25

Innovations: Demoscene
Thu. 2010-04-22, 8.00 PM, Kleines Haus 3 - Fri. 2010-04-23, 3.00 PM, Kleines Haus 3

The programme is featuring:
- Elements / Haujobb
- Doomsday / Complex
- Nine / Reflex
- IX / Moppi Productions
- Memories from the MCP / Brain Control
- FR-055: 828 / Farbrausch
- Lifeforce / Andromeda Software Development
- Chromosphere / SQNY
- Youscope / TVT
- Stargazer / Orb & Andromeda
- Elevated / TBC & RGBA
- Blunderbuss / Fairlight

Address:
Kleines Haus (Staatsschauspiel Dresden)
Glacisstraße 28
01099 Dresden
Germany

More Info: Filmfest Dresden: http://www.filmfest-dresden.de/
Stefan Pautze a.k.a. Felidae / Reflex
[Submitted by Felidae]

The seminar videos and all the additional stuff resulting from our Outreach event in November can now be downloaded here!
[Submitted by paralax]

As part of a group gathering in Vienna, Speckdrumm are organizing a scene outreach party on November 14th 2009 at the metalab hackerspace. We'll be starting at around 2pm with an open demoshow, have some scene related talks by fellow sceners and a party at night. Mind that the wiki site linked here is only in German but I've set up an English thread for the event on the Bitfellas forum for you!
[Submitted by paralax]

Once again Helsinki has played host to the mighty Assembly demoparty. Held between August 6th and 9th, Assembly is the largest combined demo and LAN party of the year. This year the entries were both impressive and plentiful, but we've managed to narrow things down by choosing just 15 of our favourites to show to you

Click here to see our recommendations

We'd like to link you to a couple of great articles about the demoscene that have recently been published on the web

Firstly we have "Past, present and future of the demoscene". This well-researched article delves into the history of the demoscene and asks where it might be heading next. It was originally presented in the UK print magazine PC Plus before being re-printed on TechRadar.com
http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/past-present-and-future-of-the-demoscene-616817

Secondly we have "Putting the demoscene in a context", an in-depth article written by Viznut of the demoscene group PwP, who are perhaps most well known for their Vic 20 demo Robotic Liberation
http://www.pelulamu.net/countercomplex/putting-the-demoscene-in-a-context/

I'm organizing a demoscene competition at a digital animation festival happening in Portugal 18-19 October 2009, called festival animatu.

It's the third year i been helping them out to put up demoscene related stuff into their program. and the second there will be a competition.

You can submit for competition demos and intros made after 1st january 2008.
Prize money 500e for the winner. Winner will be decided by jury vote.
More info at the regulations page.

To submit entries you have to fill out a form, sign and send it back (either by post, or digitally scanned). You can get the .pdf at the regulations page, or get the .doc version instead.

Deadline for delivering submissions is 30th July 2009.
[Submitted by ps]

The results from the jury are in... and here are the winners of the 7th Annual Scene.org Awards! We've included links to streaming videos of each one so that you can watch them all right now


[ Read the rest ... ]

Each year, Scene.org holds an awards ceremony at the Breakpoint party in Germany to celebrate the best demos from the previous year and last week they announced their nomations for 2008. These nominations cover 12 distinct categories and, this year, contain 39 different demos, intros and animations. Some of these you will recognise from our recent Demoscene 2008 viewing list but others will be new so we recommend that you take a look at these standout productions by clicking here. We will of course bring you the list of winners after the prize giving event on 11th April, but in the meantime - who do you think will win?

Our second set of viewing recommendations is a list of demoscene productions from 2008 that we think you might just want to know about. We've collected together 15 of our favourites from last year and linked you to more information about them - including a browser-enabled video for each one so that you can start watching them right now!

Click here to see our 2008 highlights..

If you're anywhere near Paris on Friday the 6th of February you could do a hell of a lot worse than heading on over to the "Demo In Paris" event. The evening looks like it will be a good primer on what demos are as well as a look at the spirit of the people creating them.

The event will be held at:

La Cantine
151 rue Montmartre, Passage des Panoramas
12 Galerie Montmartre
75002 Paris

from 19:30 to 23:00

Entry is free but the places are limited, so be quick! The organisers strongly recommend that you book your place as soon as possible.

Look here for more information

Recently released on the PSN network, Linger in Shadows is a PS3 exclusive demo written by the demogroup Plastic. This is the first time that such a demo has been released as a commercial project on a modern console and it's been creating a bit of a buzz!

For all you gamers and retired sceners who have had their interested in the demoscene piqued by this unusual product, we have collected together a big list of resources to help you find out more!


[ Read the rest ... ]

The first weekend in August saw Assembly 2008 being held in Helsinki, Finland. This is the largest demoparty of the year - an event where almost 5000 demosceners and gamers gather together for four days of gaming, socialising and watching demo competitions. Of course we were there for the socialising and the competitions, and boy did we see some great new demos!

This brings us neatly on to what will be the first in a regular series of viewing recommendations. In these we will be showing you our favourite demos, and each list will be based around a different theme.

So without further ado, check out our Assembly 2008 Viewing Recommendations by clicking here!

...and here we are with our first big piece of news!

ZINE, the online demoscene magazine, will be making its presence felt at this year's SIGGRAPH convention in Los Angeles. In a fine example of outreach they will be showing demos, chatting with the stars and generally introducing a whole new audience to the demoscene. One of the highlights is a panel discussion featuring Academy Award winner Kevin Mack of Sony Pictures Imageworks.

If you happen to be attending SIGGRAPH 08 then make sure you stop by to see what they're up to. We promise that you will not be disappointed!

Check out ZINE's press release below for the full details of this event..



[ Read the rest ... ]

So here we are, gathered together after many weeks of hard work to witness the launch of the new Demoscene Outreach site. Created by ZINE and BitFellas, we are here to tell you what you need to know about the demoscene.

Whether you've heard about us at an outreach event, seen a link from your favourite website or just decided that it's about time that you caught up with one of the most exciting forms of digital art - this is the site for you. We are dedicated to helping you find out about the demoscene and showing you what to look out for. Think of us as your guide through the sometimes bewildering world of demos.

Of course, we wouldn't be here without the dedication, support and vision of the outreach team: ALiEN, Axel, evilpaul, H2o, Jova and everyone else at BitFellas and ZINE. Thank you all and we hope that we can make you proud and spread your message to the world.

So that's us and that's what we are about. Now let's get down to business..