Challenges and opportunities in preserving intangible cultural heritage: lessons from the Demoscene

The Demoscene is a pioneering digital culture and an art form. Its roots in Poland date back to the mid-1980s. In 2019, the Polish Demosceners, alongside their Finnish and German counterparts in the Art of Coding campaign, embarked on an initiative to advocate for the recognition of the Demoscene by UNESCO. This move highlighted the tension between the inherently decentralised and demarcating nature of the Demoscene and formal requirements of cultural heritage preservation. In this paper, we present a brief overview of the Demoscene, combining personal observations from the UNESCO enlisting process with insights gathered from a supportive study conducted among Demoscene community members. The results of this study are presented in the context of digital preservation challenges in various domains, offering a comparative perspective. The paper concludes with some insights into what information to store alongside the Demoscene productions themselves and outlines potential further work, addressing both current and emerging challenges faced by the Demoscene community.