Computing is an industry where many problems of today's world -- wastefulness, overcomplexity, alienation, etc. -- manifest more extremely than anywhere else. The demoscene subculture, while working on ever stricter limitations and exploring different platforms on ever deeper levels, provides a strong contrast against these trends.
We are two demo artists who have been working on classic eight-bit platforms (Atari VCS, VIC-20, C-64, NES), very short programs (bytebeat, IBNIZ), experimental emergent styles and many other things. In our session, we will screen some of our work and discuss the perspectives it has given us towards computers, technology and even human civilization in general. It is apparent to us that sticking to "industrial" methodologies reveals only a tiny fraction of the potential of any given technology, and realizing the full potential requires deep excursions to the more chaotic, uncontrollable and profoundly non-modular areas of the possibility space.