He studied economics and philosophy at Emory University and received his Ph.D. in theater direction and criticism, with a second concentration in computer-generated sound at Stanford University, where he worked with former Brecht assistant Carl Weber as well as pioneers of digital synthesis John Chowning, Max Matthews, and Chris Chafe at the Center for Research in Computer Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).

His artistic and research interests revolve around the development and production of real-time, computationally-augmented responsive performance environments fusing space, sound, image, architectural material, and sensor-based technologies.

After collaborating with Peter Sellars and William Forsythe/Ballett Frankfurt, he co-founded the art and research organization Sponge, whose works have stretched between the arenas of performance, installation, scientific research and publications and have toured internationally to festivals, exhibitions and venues. His work has been seen at major international exhibitions and presentation venues in over a dozen countries including the National Art Museum of China (Beijing), Ars Electronica (Linz), Todays Art (the Hague), transmediale (Berlin), and the Venice Biennale.

Salter has received major grants from SSHRC, FQRSC, Hexagram, CINQ, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Daniel Langlois Foundation, the Creative Work Fund/San Francisco, and the LEF Foundation, among others. He is a regular presenter at national and international conferences, has given invited talks at universities and festivals worldwide, and has sat on numerous juries including NIME, ISEA, and the Prix Ars Electronica.

In addition to his artistic work, Salter is the author of numerous publications in the areas of technology and performance, real time responsive environments, mobile real time media and cultural politics. His book Entangled: Technology and the Transformation of Performance was published by MIT Press in 2010. He is currently working on a follow up entitled Alien Agency: Ethnographies of Nonhuman Performance, also under contract with MIT Press.