Faster or Dead

Written by Magellan

Recently, many people wonder what will happen to the scene itself in future as far as there is not much of the new blood blowing fresh wind among the old statues, into the Stonehenge we are used to living in. We ask ourselves if the scene evolution doesn't stop, if it even stagnates being still based on the same classic ways, which have become a bit boring lately. We bitch about releases looking all the same, following the same style, the same design and the same effects. No innovation at all, no young and new ideas at all.

Personally, when I was thinking about the very same, a special idea popped in my mind - has anybody ever tried to discover WHAT forces the common computer users or simply people who are interested in - to enter the scene? WHAT happens within one's head to decide to participate, to be around demos and such?

I have experienced that it is so personal and differs for each and everyone. I don't know why but some people are affected and some are not - without any obvious reason. There was a friend of mine, a real cyberpunk interested in everything concerning computers, creating both 2D and 3D graphics professionally. I decided to show him some of the very best demos and scene graphics and music to find out, if he gets attracted or not. He watched the releases very carefully, he also listened to the music, but then he said: "The effects are so damn cool to watch, it's all so colorful, well synchronized with the soundtrack, but hey dude tell me why do those guys invest so much time into making it for free?" He didn't seem to be interested in the background, the very basis of the scene. He couldn't just understand the core at all. I thought he would.

On the other hand, there was another friend of mine. He hasn't ever proven too much enthusiasm towards computers overall. He used them at work, but didn't care about them when it came to anything but the wordprocessors and spreadsheets. He just was not one of the real freaks. I showed him some of the demos and he was hooked. From then on, he became rather interested, searching for more, downloading piles of stuff from the internet. I thought he wouldn't.

I think the scene feeling, the magic moment when destiny decides if you are hooked or not, depends on many things, but most of all on the _art_ of the scene. I have realized that only really creative people are attracted by the scene - those who do something just for the pleasure of making any kind of art, it doesn't really matter if one is a computer freak. They see that computer is a great tool for discovering even more, to continue the work finding new ways which had been impossible to follow without the computer and the scene itself. Mainly when it comes to graphicians and musicians. Suddenly, they have the right tool with unlimited possibilities. Making a real piece of art is now much easier and the results are so much better.

It's also a matter of the age. When you're young, you don't care much about earning money - well, you think it might be interesting, but the most important thing is to enjoy yourself, because when you're 14, the whole life is just a play in your eyes. Thus you participate, thus you think you reached something - you make stuff which is known by people from all around the world, maybe you top most of the charts really soon as well. It fulfills your desires, you don't need any money, the scene swallows you. Then you grow up, things get much harder and more complicated, you enter the real life and the scene becomes just a piece of your life - the place you meet your good old friends, the place you express yourself.

Therefore it's so hard to achieve more brand new talents now. The overall environment gets faster and faster each day, human lives get faster, our children will have to know much more things than we have ever learnt in our own lives. The recent kids grow up sooner than we did, while there is much less time for enjoying themselves, to find their way to the scene. As far as I can remember, I smoked my first joint when I was about 17. At the moment, I know really young people (13 or 14 years old) who swallow amphetamines as if it was a chewing gum. If we need more newcomers to the scene, we should find a faster way of showing them what that all is about. We cannot afford to miss the time when it's not too late for them, otherwise the real life grabs them with the real troubles and problems and I am convinced that from that point, there is no way back.

Magellan/ROYALpc