Really interesting to read about this! That's wonderful validation for a vital digital culture and its heritage.
As the creator of Glicol (https://glicol.org/), based in Oslo and working in the digital arts space, I'm always fascinated by how different countries foster creative technology. Sweden's approach in recognizing the demoscene this way is particularly encouraging.
It makes me reflect on the pathways to support here in Norway. While academic environments can be very supportive (as my previous supervisors have been), navigating the broader public arts funding structures for newer digital art forms sometimes feels more challenging, especially perhaps for those working outside of long-established networks.
Seeing Sweden's success in formally recognizing this kind of digital heritage is genuinely inspiring and offers food for thought.
As a scener since the early 90s, I'm thrilled with these announcements. Personally, what I'd like to see come of it is an increase in the amount of academic studies of the scene at the intersection of art, technology, and anthropology. A careful study of the scene, what makes it unique, how it bleeds into other adjacent scenes (and what those are), sub-scenes, core elements of demoscene art and tech, all those things would be really interesting.
They've all been written about by sceners in the past, but I think more outside observations would be enlightening. As a demoscener, you know what is scene and what isn't, and basically how it works. But I've found it nearly impossible to succinctly explain it to non-sceners without sounding like I'm crazy, or making it up, or giving them a very wrong understanding of core demo elements (e.g. "so it's all about doing things in small sizes?")
One leg up, the scene has done a very good job archiving information about scene groups, sceners, scene productions, and sub-scene productions, giving future researchers a lot of information to start from.
As a demoscener, I think this cool (though maybe also a bit useless).
But the thing this highlights to me now is how weird it is that UNESCO heritage lists are per country. The design seems wholly unsuited to any sort of culture that has emerged after the invention of global communication networks such as the internet. IIRC demoscene is already recognized as UNESCO heritage in Finland and Germany, what are we going to do, go down the list of every country that ever produced more than a few demos?
I mean of course none of this matters, because there's not really any tangible benefit to one's hobby being on a list like this, but it's still kinda funky. As if culture stops at country borders.
Some of the other national UNESCO demoscene additions incl. thoughts around the benefits of this kind of declaration, and of course plenty of fond anecdotes:
Finland adds the demoscene as a UNESCO intangible world cultural heritage
Fascinating that the Swedish demoscene is getting UNESCO heritage status. It's great to see this creative digital subculture, which has pushed the boundaries of what's possible with computer graphics and effects for decades, getting mainstream recognition. Kudos to the hard work of the communities and organizers involved.
Never been a part of the demoscene per se, but I remember going to The Party in Denmark the year that Andromeda won the Amiga compo with Nexus 7. That is one of the great memories from my youth.
It’s incredible to see what can be achieved with very few lines of code to produce visuals and sound. It’s often pretty easy to know who the demoscene is made by because of the artistic style. Similar to more traditional art forms.
I thought UNESCO world heritage sites were physical locations rather than aspects of a possibly physically dispersed culture. Is the site the whole country of Sweden?
ive always thought the ethereum ecosystem would give demoscene a revival. storing the demos on chain adds a new layer of complexity where the bigger the size the more expensive to deploy.
Would you agree the demoscene is slowly turning into generative-art-NFT-scene. I mean, lot of new effects get released a gif or genart snippets, and some are actually really good. Also #genaury been a think for several years now.
Not sure how this relates to the heritage status of older productions though.
The demoscene as a UNESCO heritage in Sweden
(goto80.com)633 points by robin_reala 31 March 2025 | 86 comments
Comments
As the creator of Glicol (https://glicol.org/), based in Oslo and working in the digital arts space, I'm always fascinated by how different countries foster creative technology. Sweden's approach in recognizing the demoscene this way is particularly encouraging.
It makes me reflect on the pathways to support here in Norway. While academic environments can be very supportive (as my previous supervisors have been), navigating the broader public arts funding structures for newer digital art forms sometimes feels more challenging, especially perhaps for those working outside of long-established networks.
Seeing Sweden's success in formally recognizing this kind of digital heritage is genuinely inspiring and offers food for thought.
They've all been written about by sceners in the past, but I think more outside observations would be enlightening. As a demoscener, you know what is scene and what isn't, and basically how it works. But I've found it nearly impossible to succinctly explain it to non-sceners without sounding like I'm crazy, or making it up, or giving them a very wrong understanding of core demo elements (e.g. "so it's all about doing things in small sizes?")
One leg up, the scene has done a very good job archiving information about scene groups, sceners, scene productions, and sub-scene productions, giving future researchers a lot of information to start from.
And overall this website is extremely interesting with tutorials and code and great explanations https://iquilezles.org/
But the thing this highlights to me now is how weird it is that UNESCO heritage lists are per country. The design seems wholly unsuited to any sort of culture that has emerged after the invention of global communication networks such as the internet. IIRC demoscene is already recognized as UNESCO heritage in Finland and Germany, what are we going to do, go down the list of every country that ever produced more than a few demos?
I mean of course none of this matters, because there's not really any tangible benefit to one's hobby being on a list like this, but it's still kinda funky. As if culture stops at country borders.
Finland adds the demoscene as a UNESCO intangible world cultural heritage
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22876961
Demoscene accepted as UNESCO cultural heritage in Germany
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26522681
Demoscene accepted as UNESCO cultural heritage in The Netherlands
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36597460
Never been a part of the demoscene per se, but I remember going to The Party in Denmark the year that Andromeda won the Amiga compo with Nexus 7. That is one of the great memories from my youth.
Wat?
As good as it gets!
To me the shark is already jumped, but I don't think they'll ever quit.
Not sure how this relates to the heritage status of older productions though.