Hands on History talk with Lukasz Szalankiewicz.
This lecture explores the origins and evolution of early digital communities, including hackers, crackers, phreakers, and the demoscene. Special emphasis will be placed on the demoscene as a unique cultural phenomenon that combines audiovisual creativity, coding, and technological experimentation.
The lecture will examine the key characteristics of these communities, their interconnections, and their influence on the development of technology, game design, and broader digital pop culture. It also aims to highlight how informal and grassroots digital practices laid the foundations for many contemporary cultural and technological trends.
Lukasz Szalankiewicz – Audio Lead, electronic music performer, and sound artist. He is a member of the Polish Society for Electroacoustic Music (PSeME) and the Polish Society for Contemporary Music (the Polish section of ISCM). His artistic journey began in the early 1990s through immersion in the demoscene – an early computer subculture focused on pushing the limits of technology. The multimedia spirit of the demoscene continues to inspire his solo work, where sound merges with visual and conceptual frameworks.
A long-time lecturer at Collegium Da Vinci in Poznań, he now leads the Game Design Studio at the University of Social Sciences in Poznań. Internationally recognized for his interactive installations and performances, he is also a new media activist and curator. From 2016 to 2017, he served as an expert at the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, promoting games and interactive media on a global stage.
He is a co-founder of the Social Committee of the Polish Demoscene, which succeeded in registering the demoscene as part of Poland’s intangible cultural heritage (2021), and is an active supporter of the global Art of Coding initiative. His interests include the history of video games, early digital communities, and media archaeology. Since 2023, he has served as a brand ambassador for Zylia, specializing in volumetric audio for virtual and augmented reality.