Radical Democracy (James Hoff & Ben Kudler)

James Hoff is an artist and a co-founder of Primary Information, a non-profit publisher based in New York. His multidisciplinary work includes painting, sound, new media, and publishing. His approach begins at the user level and the functional technologies and data that consumers interact with on a daily basis. He has worked with computer viruses, data signals, earworms, dead zones, and hacked mapping technology as tools and framing devices for multimedia works that reimagine and expand the creative potential of digital and cultural networks beyond their economic and corporate-engineered use value.

Ben Kudler is an artist, computer scientist, and writer living and working in New York City. Sound is the primary focus of Kudler’s work, usually in the form of improvised electronic music, installation, and found speech recordings. Criticism and critical and personal essay also figure prominently into the artist’s work. Releasing small run audio multiples – cassettes, records, CDs and web native releases – and performing in, what is often tersely termed, the Noise Underground, Kudler’s work is heavily influenced by the experiences of living and organizing in Baltimore’s long running, but now defunct, art warehouse spaces The Bank and Tarantula Hill.