evoke-2025
GRADE panel at Evoke 2025
16/08/2025, 12:00-13:00
Abenteuer Hallen KALK (Cologne, Germany)
Moderator: Prof. Dr Gleb Albert (University of Lucerne)
Panelist: Mark Maletska and Zee Upitis
Fractures and Resilience: Digital Subcultures in Times of Crisis
Digital subcultures such as the demoscene are children of an almost utopian era in a peaceful region: The late 1980s and early 1990s in Northern and Western Europe, where these subcultures took form, were dominated by a discourse of benevolent globalisation, the triumph of liberal democracy, and the feeling that national borders and wars between states are a thing of the past. Today, this self-perception is clearly shattered. But were digital subcultures in Europe really sheltered from war, violence and permanent crisis until very recently? How did computer enthusiasts in Eastern Europe, where home computers had been circulating en masse already in the late 1980s, cope with the social ruptures caused by economic transformation in the 1990s? How did creative computing communities in Yugoslavia survive the bloody wars of the 1990s? How did the vibrant computer subcultures in the post-Soviet space position themselves regarding the increasing Russian neo-imperialist ambitions from the mid-1990s onwards, culminating in the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022? Did creative computing cultures simply break under pressure, did they sometimes even cave in to nationalist and imperialist currents of the time, or did they, to the contrary, draw strategies of resilience from their inherently cosmopolitan and transnationalist predispositions? In this GRADE discussion panel held at the Evoke demoparty in Cologne, Germany, one of the hotspots of the contemporary European demoscene, we invite academics and creative computing practitioners to discuss the history and present of digital subcultures facing war and crisis, focussing on the current war against Ukraine.
Mark Maletska
Mark Maletska is a PhD candidate at Game Research Lab, Tampere University. Prior to current position, he worked as a teacher of philosophy at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Ukraine. His research interests lie within queer game studies, with emphasis on cultural differences in perception of queerness. His current research project’s focus is gaming-related experiences of trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming Ukrainians.
Zee Upitis
Zee is a documentary filmmaker originally from Latvia and currently residing in Ukraine. Having actively participated in the demoscene in the post-Soviet space from the early nineties gives, he brings a unique perspective on its internal dynamics across former Soviet republics as well as its integration within the global demoscene culture.
About Evoke
Since 1997, around 350-400 members of the demoscene from across the continent come annually to Germany, to celebrate digital art and electronic music. The event also includes talks and workshops focused on creative computing practices related to the demoscene. More information: https://2025.evoke.eu.
The demoscene is at the core of what GRADE defines as creative computing and Action’s participation in the event will boost its visibility with key stakeholders. Not only the demoscene itself but also other creative computing oriented grassroots communities, as many of the Evoke participants are also activist in areas such as right to repair, online privacy and circular economy (WG2), as well as in the UNESCO recognized efforts for digital heritage preservation (WG3), see: https://demoscene-the-art-of-coding.net/.