The demoscene is an open international digital subculture that focuses on the creative use of computers. Communities of “demogroups” develop computer programs to create audiovisual animations and present their programming skills. Participants in this subculture create “demos”, which could be classified as artwork or as digital artifacts. Demos have a captivating aspect that has created a unique sense of community in the scene and contributed greatly to establishing the demo tradition. Demoparties are an important part of the demoscene. These festivals celebrate digital creativity and host competitions – known as “compos” – in which the latest productions are screened and voted on by the audience.
Demoscene members from Switzerland played an important role in establishing the subculture internationally, which has been steadily expanding since the 1980s thanks to the advent of affordable home computers. To this day, the demoscene in Switzerland continues to be very lively and contributes to developing new forms of demos and sharing the knowledge of the community.
