Octapod was founded in 1996 by ‘ a group of artists and students who liked the idea of a public access media space – where people could create and browse interesting and unusual, non-mainstream media’ (Healy 2005). Conceived as an incubator and a common infrastructure for a variety of independent projects, Octapod was formally incorporated in 1997.Octapod operated as a volunteer run and project based organisation until 2004 when it received funding from Arts NSW.