ZX Spectrum Demoscene - (Biblioteka XXII Wieku) by Piotr Marecki & Yerzmyey & Robert Straka (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This book describes three phenomena in digital media. Firstly, it concerns the 8-bit personal computer ZX Spectrum produced by the British company Sinclair Research since 1982. As a publication about a specific platform, it falls into the mainstream category of platform studies and it pays special attention to how the computer was used for creative purposes. Secondly, the story about the platform will also be presented from the perspective of the community that flocked around it. Therefore, it is mainly a book about people who identify with the ZX Spectrum. We do not describe all the users of the platform here (players, people using apps), rather we adopt the demoscene criterion (which we explain below). And the last and third phenomenon discussed in our book deals with the decentering of digital media or discovering digital phenomena from beyond the hegemonic center. Therefore, even though the ZX Spectrum was created in Great Britain the use of the computer in the country of its birth will not interest us. Thanks to its creator, Sir Clive Sinclair, the ZX Spectrum was designed as a computer primarily for educational purposes. As it often happens, the work detached itself from its creator and took on a life of its own. In our narrative, we will focus on the acquisition (cloning) and creative use of the computer in Eastern and Central Europe.

About the Author

Piotr Marecki, PhD, editor, publisher, translator of experimental literature (with Aleksandra Malecka), cultural studies and digital culture scholar. President of Korporacja Ha!art Foundation, supporting contemporary, innovative, experimental art and culture. Since 1999 editor-in- chief of postdisciplinary journal of art and culture Ha!art. Assistant professor in the Institute of Culture at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and lecturer at the Film School in Lódź. He is also the head of creative computing lab at the Jagiellonian University. In 2013-14 he did a postdoc at Massachussets Institute of Technology at the Trope Tank lab.

Yerzmyey - demoscener, musician, graphic artist, photographer, writer. Author and co-author of numerous demos, intros, graphics, chiptune songs, interactive fiction, games, collection of photos. Those works have been presented around the world (Europe, Russia, USA, Asia). He is mostly a ZX Spectrum artist, but also works with Atari and Amiga computers, Commodore 264 series, the Raspberry Pi and many others. He is the co-author of a creative computing lab at the Jagiellonian University.

Robert "Hellboj" Straka, PhD, z80 & x86 programmer, mathematician and AGH University of Science and Technology (Kraków, Poland) lecturer. In the current project he is responsible for ZX Spectrum code desing and implementations. Author & coauthor of several demos, intros and games on the ZX Spectrum. His academic career is linked to advanced numerical methods in science and engineering with emphasis on GPU computations and Lattice Boltzmann Method.