This is a draft for an article for OhmyNews, a news website in Korea. They may put an article on their main technology page, but sometimes it just stays in the database. I would do a final version after the files are loaded on scene.org, maybe next week?
Previous article
I became interested through Life Bytes and other internet cafes in Exeter and connecting digital with Animated Exeter. I have worked on a digital fringe - Animex
http://www.acrobat-services.co.uk/animation
The article may help to make some connections. If we can get stuff into Quicktime it can be shown at the Black Box, Phoenix Exeter. If there is some interest there could be something shown during animated Exeter in Feb 06.
There could be enough material to do something in the summer connected with Assembly TV. Ideas for an Exeter TV are vague but there is some support.
Any comment welcome, or suggested additions for the article. Just insert stuff into the text, including direct quotes if you like. I may not use it but probably will include most copy one way or another.
I have probably got a lot of detail wrong, so please check what you can
------------------
Demo Scene returns to the UK
Old Skool rules in Budleigh Salterton
Sundown 2005 was the first UK event for some years to connect with the 'demo' scene. Most examples are hosted
by scene.org. Digital animation and sound is possible from very small files because of the coding skills, often writing directly to graphics chips. The weekend event in Budleigh Salterton was small scale but there has not been much in the UK since the days of the Amiga in the early '90s.
The demo scene is believed to have started originally with small logos or identity promotions to add to games when the security had been broken. The elements of 'showing off' or claiming technical success seem to continue. The scene is gradually getting more legitimate so that nowadays many people work for games companies and there is no place for security hacking. There is more information about the demo scene on the Wikipedia.
The demo scene developed when bandwidth was very limited and a there was much use of bulletin boards before web sites. File sizes needed to be small. So competition categories included an 'intro', defined as writing within 64k.
Budleigh Salterton is not the most obvious place to host such an event. Nearby Sidmouth is well known for Folk Music, which seems to fit the location well. In Budleigh Salterton there has recently been a move to add some classical music during the same week. For many years the summer highlight has been a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan, though this year there was a move to Cole Porter.
One explanation is the resource of the Budleigh Town Hall. This is much larger than a village hall and is close to a free car park. It is about half an hour from the motorway so not much further than Exeter for people who come from London or Birmingham.
http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/communityhalls#bb
Most of the time was spent working on new files or exchanging ideas. Only the Saturday evening was for showing new projects. There was also a short awards ceremony at lunchtime on Sunday to indicate it was time to pack up.
A lot of interest centred on old equipment such as Spectrum and Amiga. There are now emulators for the Spectrum but the Saturday showing was delayed while cables were cound for a real one. There was much applause for a rotating ball achieved on 'old school' equipment. Now that modern PCs can support similar effects to music videos there is renewed interest in meeting a technical constraint.
Most of the music was for dance. There was DJ equipment for mixing but so far as I know most people stayed close to a screen for all three days.
It was surprising to me that Photoshop was included as a way to create graphics. Maybe the point is that software can be used in ways other than intended. A photorealistic drawing can be created in Photoshop for example, even if most people would start with Illustrator.
There are some much larger events such as Breakpoint in Bingen am Rhein, and Assembly in Helsinki. Both seem to be reaching out to new audiences. Breakpoint now features a major awards ceremony. Assembly has a TV channel, including the web and cable. This may get wider distribution next year for the fifteenth occasion. There is a longterm web broadcast at demoscene tv. Only a small download is required to secure a stream with a choice of three channels.
The organisers were pleased that about 50 people turned up in Budleigh so there will probably be another Sundown in 2006. "Another good thing, we only had one gamer" said Ruairi, going on to explain that the person concerned had gone on to be more creative and would look more into the demo scene in future. The networking facilites were provided by Westlan, who will arrange a November games event also in Budleigh.
http://www.westlan.co.uk/
< suggest changes here Ruairi if you like , OhmyNews suggest a direct quote as part of a story >
A future Sundown may get closer to Exeter. There could be connections with the Phoenix and the animation festival. The Black Box is able to show Quicktime so ways can be found for projecting to a larger audience. DVDs are now available, for example Mindcandy. These are easier for people used to cinema.
Even if a larger venue is found closer to Exeter, Budleigh is not far away. There is an old saying, "The beach is under the pavement."
very short
might appear in the Black Box
extract by Ate Bit
comments
links
