The Swiss Federal Office of Culture (FOC) declared in its 22nd August 2023 media release that the Demoscene has been added to the national Inventory of Living Traditions, as one of only four new national traditions, under the title “Demoscene – Digital Creativity”. After its first publication in 2012, this is only the inventory’s second update and the Demoscene is its first digital culture. Echtzeit – Digitale Kultur, our non-profit association which promotes and teaches Demo coding and other traditional practices and hosts Demoscene events like Demonights or the Demoparty MountainBytes, has filed the application. All Echtzeit members are extremely happy about the positive result! Recognition of the Demoscene as national, living tradition is an acknowledgement of our efforts around the Demoscene in Switzerland and at the same time a promise to the future of our projects, events, and initiatives.

Our sincere thanks go to all contributors of the application, everyone participating in the decision in the cantons, the Federal Office of Culture and the involved committees for their benevolence and recognition, that the Demoscene with its history, distinctiveness and vivid creativity has particular relevance as digital culture, nationally and internationally.

The Demoscene will now be portrayed as living tradition by a dedicated team in a dossier and activated in the online Inventory of Living Traditions. Dossier development will be supported by contributions of Echtzeit – Digitale Kultur and members of the Demoscene. We are looking highly forward to this collaboration.

The recognition of the Demoscene as intangible cultural heritage in Switzerland follows earlier listings in Finland, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands. Our Swiss success means another leap forward for the international initiative Demoscene – The Art of Coding, which also sparked our application for the Inventory of Living Traditions.

Article title image: Screenshot from the demo Tensile by Horology