Who We Are

Signal Culture, Inc. is a brand new experimental media art organization founded in 2012 in upstate New York. Our mission is to encourage the creation of new work, building of community, and preservation of history in the field of experimental media art by providing artists, researchers, and innovators with residencies, resources, and exhibition opportunities.

Our Vision & What We've Done So Far

We plan to build an experimental media studio with real-time analog and digital image processing equipment, custom made hardware and software, a variety of interactive interfaces and alternative imaging devices that can be configured in a modular studio setup. We have already received some generous equipment donations. We’ve started helping provide tools for artists to make new media work by enlisting artists to make custom creative apps that are available to you through our fundraising campaign.

In addition to the residency program, Signal Culture is planning to organize public exhibitions and talks, curate traveling shows, produce publications, and create an on-site research center dedicated to documenting the history and material practices driving experimental media art. Our inaugural exhibition opens October 3, 2013 at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center with work by Kristin Lucas, Peer Bode, Phillip Stearns, and Joe McKay, who all will be among our first residents. We're getting started on providing resources to those researching the history of media art by doing a series of interviews that will become podcasts.

Our first publishing project will be the Signal Culture Cookbook, edited by Tammy McGovern. The e-book, available for pre-order through the fundraising campaign, showcases media production recipes and tips from artists who are doing experimental work in video, sound, digital and related media. This book takes a journey through some very interesting and unique projects, and aims to provide a maker level insight into these projects and how they were produced. It revolves around artists’ creative uses of old, new, hybrid and handmade technologies. From simple tips to help you get started with audio and video processing or the basics of working with contact mics, to full step-by-step how-to articles, with each article providing ideas and skills you can take away.

We are currently incorporated as a New York State non-profit and are working toward obtaining 501(c)3 status. Contributions to our campaign can be tax deductible, thanks to our relationship with our fiscal sponsor Fractured Atlas. We are committed to building a financially sustainable organization and have already been awarded funding through mediaThe foundation and Organizational Development support from the Media Arts Technical Assistance Fund of NYSCA Electronic Media and Film, administered by free103point9.

Please check out our Updates or Gallery in tabs above, our website, or Facebook page for more information about our perks or about Signal Culture.

Thank You

Thanks so much to the people and organizations who have contributed money, perks, or equipment so far, and to all of you who have been calling, emailing, tweeting, messaging, and telling people about the campaign on our behalf. We are so touched by your generousity. Please, continue to help spread the word about us in these last hours of the campaign. We will receive all donations given by 11:59pm on Tuesday, May 7th. This is not an all or nothing campaign. We are going to be able to get things started and we are so grateful for that! The closer we get to reaching our goal, the more quickly we'll be able to achieve the experimental media studio and programming that we want to offer you.