Shona Neary on Building Countercult
Art, technology and independent culture.
A conversation with Countercult’s artist-founder about uncertainty, collective responsibility, following artists across the world, and turning a digital platform into real rooms and paid work.
This interview was assembled from Shona’s named first-person writing on LinkedIn and Substack and an extended working conversation about Countercult. Quotes have been lightly corrected for spelling, punctuation, and readability with Shona’s permission. Countercult-branded copy without confirmed personal authorship was excluded.
You describe your programmes as experiments. Does that mean you are unsure of the mission?
Shona Neary: I have no problem cutting off things that aren’t working. That’s why I call them experiments. I am stubborn, but flexible.
The flexibility is in the form, not the ambition. A residency can change. An event can end. A product can be rebuilt. None of that means the underlying idea was unserious. Countercult’s programmes are ways to test how independent culture can be found, funded, experienced, and connected without waiting for traditional institutions to decide that it counts.
What does that look like when you do not know whether something will work?
Shona: I have no idea what will happen, but win or lose, I will put what happens in these little newsletters that I’m not sure anyone reads.
They wrote that after opening THE FLOOR in Berlin. Around 100 people came through the doors to see their curation of local artists and meet the project’s first resident. “This felt bigger than a launch,” they wrote.
Shona: THE FLOOR is what I see as the artists taking their stake again.
You are an artist building technology. How do those identities sit together?
Shona: The number one question I usually got when I told people I’m an artist was, “When did you know you were an artist?” Now that has shifted to, “What are your thoughts on AI as an artist?”
Shona: To be honest, I’ve always loved tech. I grew up painting, yes, but I also grew up with tons of ’80s sci-fi and am quite the nerd. It’s the only fictional genre that ends up becoming true.
They do not treat technology as automatically liberating or automatically hostile. They describe AI as a tool while looking for more ethical and open alternatives. The important boundary is that a founder’s enthusiasm cannot be mistaken for consensus from the network.
Shona: I don’t speak for all of us, obviously. Running Countercult isn’t about my thoughts; it’s about our entire network.
What drives you to keep crossing places and disciplines?
Shona: Don’t ask why. I just sniff out and follow the artists and the business, partly to be strategic, but mostly for adventure.
The line was written from a turbulent flight above the Sahara, travelling from Berlin to South Africa after launching THE FLOOR. Countercult has developed through physical movement, improvised meetings, residencies, artist spaces, newsletters, events, and product work-not from a distance.
Why does the language used around independent culture matter?
Shona: I don’t want to be grassroots. I’m tired of this.
“Independent” describes cultural autonomy-not insignificance. Countercult can protect free public discovery, refuse pay-to-rank visibility, and direct value toward artists while still building a financially serious company. Shona wants the model challenged on evidence, demand, pricing, and delivery-not automatically placed in a smaller category because it works with culture.
Where could the money supporting that work come from?
Shona: Tourism spending and institutions. I think that is where it will come from.
Destinations, cities, cultural departments, hospitality groups, universities, foundations, and major developments already spend money on visitors, programmes, research, placemaking, and local participation. Countercult can help that spending reach independent culture more intentionally: understand a place, identify gaps, publish opportunities, commission local work, track who was paid, and update the picture as culture changes.
The institution should not receive a downloadable copy of the network. It pays for current knowledge, responsible access, curation, workflows, execution, and evidence of where value went.
Is there a live example of that model?
Shona: We are doing our new platform launch at Klunkerkranich on 17 September. Klunkerkranich paid us to curate and pay local artists for the night.
The Berlin launch will bring together a live jazz jam and live art jam, drawing artists into the room before six hours of DJ sets and creative networking. The venue allocated a budget, Countercult curated the programme, local artists are being paid, and the digital network becomes a real gathering. It is a practical example, not a claim about what might happen later.
Countercult new platform launch
17 September 2026 · Klunkerkranich, Berlin
Live jazz jam · live art jam · six hours of DJ sets · creative networking
What are you ultimately building?
Trusted infrastructure for finding, funding, and working with independent culture.
Shona: Culture lives offline. The technology should make the relationships easier to find and support. It should not replace the people.
That is why the launch is a night rather than a software demonstration-and why Countercult’s commercial future cannot be separated from the artists, venues, cities, and physical relationships it is being built to serve.
Sources
This conversation draws on Shona’s public LinkedIn writing; the Shona-authored Substack posts “Artist boots on the ground” and “NYC, Japan, and our thoughts on AI as creatives”; and direct statements from Shona during the development of Countercult.
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.