Say some words about yourself: handle, groups

Hi, I´m Tobias Kopka, in the scene I´m melkor, member of Haujobb since 1994, before briefly for a year in Agnostic Front. In real life I´m organising game developer conferences and festivals, in the scene I´m for the last decade mostly the guy doing the cultural- and outreach-projects, like doing lectures and presentations on festivals or in Universities, or writing articles from time to time.

When and where was the first Evoke you visited?

I think the first evoke I visited was when it was still held in Düren in the late 90s. I remember pictures together with the Paderborn Haujobb crew, so I guess maybe 96 or 97?

When did you join the organizing team?

I joined indirectly 2004 when we founded Digitale Kultur e.V., the organisational umbrella association behind evoke. But Digitale Kultur e.V. was not only for organising evoke, but also doing cultural activities, and that was my home turf which interested me. I was studying media studies, political science and history at University at that time - actually wanted to be an documentary film maker - and was from the scene - but always more the guy for the outreach projects of the demoscene. Be it on filming on demoscene events (Dialogos, Breakpoint, Evoke, TUM), be it in doing presentations, lectures and workshops at conferences to promote and explain the demoscene or be it in organising showcases together with friends from the Verein. Especially our Next Level Conference participation in 2010, with the demorunner by Pandur, and a sofa setup with numerous demo-screens - which was picked up by the tagesschau - was one of the most beautiful showcases we did together with the evoke and Digitale Kultur e.V. team. Directly as part of evoke I´ve been coordinating the seminars since around 2012.

What is your job inside the organizing team?

As I was always interested not only the demoscene itself, but in interfaces of the demoscene to other fields, I was always drawn to the seminars, which I organised with the help of slider and freigeist over the course of the last five years. This year I had to step back from that role and handover to Nodepond, since my job affiliation during gamescom (I´m in charge with the whole conference program at devcom, the successor to GDC Europe and Respawn - Gathering of Game Developers, which means planning more than 200 speakers this year) let me decide to better focus and not overdo it. So I join Evoke this year mainly for celebrations with the community of friends I know in many cases for 25 years and more, and return next year to normal, which I´m both really looking forward to! :)

Is there a demo/intro/... released at Evoke you love the most?

Actually Nodepond picked my absolute favourite already (Neuro - Die Ewigkeit Schmerzt), it seems to be a seminar organisers thing. :) Second choice would be definitely from still or Black Maiden…hmmm… let´s pick Calcifer from still and Pageturner from Black Maiden.

What would be the photo to describe Evoke for you?

From 2014 a groupshot of friends watching a competition together - one thing I always loved most: the mixture of competition and community which blends perfectly in the scene.

Do you have a favourite shirt from Evoke?

Yes, last year´s shirt!

Three words that describe Evoke best?

Excellence - Community - Home

Is there anything else that you always wanted to say about Evoke?

I´m always thankful to have grown up sort of naturally in this type of community. We were there when the digital landscape was enculturated, though not all of what we believed in and hoped for in the 90s held true in the 2000s and especially this decade. With all the political manoeuvres - now that the classical gatekeepers are gone - we must witness presidents tweeting and seeing communities of a… gathering around these. Apparently not only the good people always gather.

Nevertheless the feeling of freedom and anything goes which we felt in the 90s is still prevailing. Nowadays young people with tech interest join probably firsthand the indie scene or hacker or maker scene, and the demoscene had of course always it´s overlaps with these. Nevertheless, surprisingly to some, the demoscene is in no regards a dying phenomenon, we are around, new people are joining constantly, and thus we celebrate hopefully also a 40th edition of evoke in 20 years! See you soon!