Explore the ‘Signal to Noise’ exhibition co-curated by ADM+S researcher Dr Joel Stern
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Date 1 August 2025
The information age is over, explore the age of noise at the new ‘Signal to Noise ‘ exhibition co-curated by ADM+S researcher Dr Joel Stern.
‘Signal to Noise’ examines how artists engage with disruptions and interference in communication technologies. The exhibit utilises a vast range of digital and physical mediums to broadcast its message to audiences. ‘Signal to Noise’ explores the chaos that noise introduces: from hundreds of pictures flashing across display screens, to corrupting files, computer system overloads and failed AI generated videos.
Led by his background in underground and experimental music scenes, co-curator Dr Joel Stern explores the practices of sound and listening. His research examines how technical, social and political sounds shape our world.
“As a researcher interested in how art, culture, and politics are shaped by emerging technologies, Signal to Noise has been a fantastic opportunity to test ideas in dialogue with brilliant colleagues and engaged audiences, both inside and outside academia,” said Dr Stern.
“I’ve long been drawn to noise—its conceptual weight, its sensory impact, its ambiguity. What is noise? What does it do? Who gets to decide what counts as noise, and what counts as signal?”
“ I hope this exhibition opens up these questions through the work of remarkable artists. In an era of big data and AI, such questions feel more urgent than ever,” he said.
An exhibit from ‘Signal to Noise.’ (SWIM by Eryk Salvaggio)
Instead of noise becoming something to minimise, ‘Signal to Noise’ artists have reframed it as a creative tool. Noise becomes engagement that hooks in audiences willing to see the beauty of chaos, unpredictability, and groundbreaking ideas.
“It was overstimulating, each exhibit was vying for attention, making it hard to focus and to draw my eyes away from the thing in front of me,” says Faolan Whitehead, a visitor to the exhibition.
The ‘Signal to Noise’ exhibition is open to the public at the National Communication Museum (NCM) until Sunday 14 September. ‘Signal to Noise’ is curated by Eryk Salvaggio, Joel Stern and Emily Siddons.
Visit the ‘Signal to Noise’ website to find out more and book tickets
