network snapshot · 29 august 2026 · anonymized
What the Countercult map is showing us
The map is still small enough to read as a set of signals. It is also large enough to show a pattern: independent culture is not concentrated in one type of person, one kind of room, or one city.
At the time of this snapshot, the public map contains 48 published pins: 24 artists, 21 spaces, and 3 cultural artifacts. No names, profile links, exact coordinates, contact details, or individual photos are included on this page.
A network with a centre and edges
Berlin is currently the largest visible cluster, with 22 pins across the city and neighbourhood labels. New York has 3 public pins, while the wider network reaches cities in Europe, North America, Africa, and beyond. The useful signal is not a ranking of cities. It is that artists and spaces are already connecting across different kinds of scenes.
What is visible matters
Public pins make discovery possible: someone can find a space, understand its context, and decide whether to look closer. Private arrangements stay private. Room-swap details, personal logistics, and member-only exchange are intentionally kept outside this public snapshot.
A map can show where culture is. It cannot replace the trust that lets culture happen.
These numbers will change as the network grows. We are publishing them as a transparent, privacy-conscious view of the project, not as a leaderboard and not as a claim that a city’s culture can be reduced to a count.
See the public network for yourself.
Browse the map without exposing private member arrangements.
This piece was informed by Shona Neary’s writing, conversations, and thinking around independent culture, artists, and place.
editorial process: Our Journals are pulled from our writings over the years to get information out as quickly and as widely as possible, and to get to what matters: finding each other and claiming our seat in the circular economy. Some ideas overlap between Shona Neary's work on cultural infrastructure and their artist practice as Sketchy Shona. AI is a tool for infrastructure, not for creating Journal writing or artists' work. We welcome original reporting and pitches from journalists and independent publishers.