Second Saturday Synesthesia: not just tech, Indy Hall hosts concert series

Austin Donohue stood strumming his guitar and singing while a colorful collage of images flashed on his face and body, a projector illuminating the stage as he performed with his Graph Rabbit band mate Shy Kedmi at Indy Hall’s inaugural event for its concert series called Second Saturday Synesthesia.

Second Saturday Synesthesia, which mashes up live music and visual art, is the next step in the evolution of the seven-year-old Old City coworking staple.

The space is “not just software coders and developers anymore,” said artist Sean Martorana, a curator at Indy Hall who cofounded the Indy Hall Arts movement. The Indy Hall Arts team has already thrown a few art shows in the coworking space, including February’s Music Inspiring Art show.

Newcomers and Indy Hall members alike gathered for the concert on Saturday night. Photo by Thomas Creedon for Technically Philly.

Events are an important piece of the puzzle at Indy Hall, said Martorana, who previously announced that Indy Hall Arts will start holding poetry nights this fall.

“The show brings an awareness to Indy Hall and what it is, but it’s also bringing the whole community something also to come to and to experience,” Martorana said. “We want people to have a place to go to experience everything.”

The city’s other coworking spaces seem to agree that events are key: Benjamin’s Desk cofounder Michael Maher started a Philly chapter of the national Startup Grind meetup that features local tech leaders at his Rittenhouse Square spot and Venturef0rth has a steady stream of events every month with speakers ranging from Obama’s campaign deputy CTO to a Bing behavioral scientist.

Still, Indy Hall Arts and its recent movement around planning and throwing events feels unique because it veers from the coworking space’s previous identity of software developers and web designers.