Blockparty
Encyclopedia
Demoparty
A demoparty is an event that gathers demosceners and other computer enthusiasts to compete in competitions. A typical demoparty is a non-stop event lasting over a weekend, providing the visitors a lot of time to socialize. The competing works, at least those in the most important competitions, are...
held in the United States. It was founded in 2007 by Jason Scott
Jason Scott Sadofsky
Jason Scott Sadofsky , more commonly known as Jason Scott, is an American archivist and historian of technology. He is the creator, owner and maintainer of textfiles.com, a web site which...
and Christian "RaD Man" Wirth
RaD Man
Christian Wirth , better known by the pseudonym RaD Man, is an American computer artist and historian. He works in the field of ANSI art, a method of creating art using a limited set of text characters and color escape codes based loosely on the relevant ANSI standard .RaD Man was initially...
. From its founding onward, it has partnered with Notacon
Notacon
Notacon is an art and technology conference which takes place annually in Cleveland, Ohio. The name Notacon became a bacronym for Northern Ohio Technological Advancement Conference, however use of this was mostly dropped after the first year...
in Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. This allowed the organizers to focus on the content without having to worry about infrastructure planning.
Blockparty is considered to be a spiritual successor of NAID
North American International Demoparty
The North American International Demoparty was a demo party held in the years 1995 and 1996, and the first demo party held in North America. Both years, the party was held at Collège Édouard-Montpetit in Longueuil, Quebec, Canada, a suburb of Montreal....
, the North American International Demoparty, which was held in 1995 and 1996 in Quebec, Canada. Both organizers and most of the speakers for the first Blockparty had attended or competed at NAID. NAID's short life (only 2 years of existence) but wild success was considered a high point in North American demoparty history and Blockparty is in some ways an attempt to repeat that success. Blockparty organizers were also active participants in the organizing of Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage (demo party)
Pilgrimage was a demoparty which took place annually in Salt Lake City, Utah each summer between 2003 and 2006. The event was founded by Rich "Legalize" Thompson of the demoscene group Polygony...
, the only US demoscene event between 2003-2006.
Blockparty achieved strong attendance for a North American demoparty in its first year: with 200+ people attending Notacon, 100+ watching the competition, and over 40 entries across all the divisions. In all, over $3700 in prizes were given away to the winners. Many of these entries were from first timers who had no previous experience with the demoscene. The invite for Blockparty 2007 placed 2nd in the combined demo category at Numerica Artparty 2007.
Blockparty 2007 featured 6 presentations about creating demos and music; each speaker was chosen for their contribution to the demoscene
Demoscene
The demoscene is a computer art subculture that specializes in producing demos, which are non-interactive audio-visual presentations that run in real-time on a computer...
. Recordings of these presentations can be downloaded from Notacon Media. Due to a rule requiring attendance by a demo group to enter the competition, members of Northern Dragons, Trailer Park Demos, Chemical Reaction (CRO) and Phluid were present at Blockparty.
Because of Blockparty's unique position alongside a non-demoscene event, much attention was given to helping "outsiders" understand and appreciate the culture surrounding demos and the people who create them. The presentation by Andy "Phoenix" Voss (co-producer of the Mindcandy
MindCandy
The MindCandy DVDs are video compilations of demoscene demos. These DVDs are the result of the DemoDVD Project, a collaboration between several Hornet members.-Volume 1: PC Demos:...
DVDs) spoke directly to this point, explaining some historical and social factors shaping the present-day demoscene.
At the end of Blockparty 2007, the organizers produced the "Blockparty Pledge": There will be at least five Blockparties, held yearly, from this point on. Blockparty 2010 will occur on April 15-18, 2010, and will once again be held in partnership with Notacon
Notacon
Notacon is an art and technology conference which takes place annually in Cleveland, Ohio. The name Notacon became a bacronym for Northern Ohio Technological Advancement Conference, however use of this was mostly dropped after the first year...
.
2007 speakers
- Andy "Phoenix" Voss - Allow Me To Demonstrate
- Jim "Trixter" LeonardMindCandyThe MindCandy DVDs are video compilations of demoscene demos. These DVDs are the result of the DemoDVD Project, a collaboration between several Hornet members.-Volume 1: PC Demos:...
- 8088 Corruption - Andrew "Necros" SegaAndrew SegaAndrew Gregory Sega , also known by the moniker Necros, is an American musician best known for tracking modules in the 1990s demoscene as well as for composing music for several well-known video games...
- Taking Tracking Mainstream - Christian "RaD Man" WirthRaD ManChristian Wirth , better known by the pseudonym RaD Man, is an American computer artist and historian. He works in the field of ANSI art, a method of creating art using a limited set of text characters and color escape codes based loosely on the relevant ANSI standard .RaD Man was initially...
- Building Character: ANSI from the Ground Up - William "S_TEC" Swanson & David "Polaris" Valentine - Techniques for 4kb Intro Development
- Jeremiah "Nullsleep" JohnsonNullsleepNullsleep is an American electronic musician and computer artist currently residing in New York City. In 1999 he co-founded the low-bit art collective 8bitpeoples, and has served as its lead director since its inception...
- Squarewave to Heaven: An introduction to the Chiptune Music Scene
2008 speakers
- The Fat Man - Art Behind Enemy Lines: A Target-Rich Environment
- Jim "Trixter" LeonardMindCandyThe MindCandy DVDs are video compilations of demoscene demos. These DVDs are the result of the DemoDVD Project, a collaboration between several Hornet members.-Volume 1: PC Demos:...
- Self-Preservation Mode: Lessons Learned While Archiving Demoscene History - Jeri EllsworthJeri EllsworthJeri Ellsworth is an American entrepreneur and self-taught computer chip designer. She is best known for creating a Commodore 64 emulator within a joystick, in 2004, called Commodore 30-in-1 Direct to TV...
- CPU Not Required: Making Demos with FPGAs - Tim Cowley: Automated Psychedelia - Automated Psychedelia: Translating sound into color and motion
- Pete Edwards and Fred Owsley - Circuit-Bending Will Get You Laid!! (Maybe)
- Jake "virt" KaufmanJake KaufmanJacob "Jake" Kaufman is an American video game music composer. After starting out creating arrangements and remixes of video game soundtracks, he began his commercial composing career in 2000 with the score to a port of Q*Bert...
- FM Synthesis - Beyond the Adlib - Beausoleil "BarZoule" Samson-Guillemette - Audio in 4K: what to do and not to do
2009 speakers
- CriticalArtware - The Artware Development Environment Artware Environment
- Gargaj / ConspiracyConspiracy (demogroup)Conspiracy is a Hungarian demogroup founded in late 2002. Being an amalgamation of various other groups, founding members were members of demogroups Digital Dynamite, Inquisition and Ümlaüt Design....
- Bridging the Gap - Ed PiskorEd PiskorEd Piskor is an alternative comics artist operating out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a former student of The Kubert School and is best known for his artistic collaborations with underground comics pioneers Harvey Pekar of American Splendor fame, and Jay Lynch who illustrates Garbage Pail Kids...
- Wizzywig: Hacking Out A Graphic Novel - George Sanger & Jeri Ellsworth - The Fat Man and Circuit Girl: LIVE!