Ben Shirken (a.k.a. Ex Wiish, Beshken) is an artist whose work spans installation, generative music & film, audiovisual performance, and sculpture. His practice contemplates how our current tools for communication, analysis, and production fundamentally alter our relationship to the present and yield alternative futures. Currently, he is inquiring into the conflicts resulting from the development of digital networks & automated systems. He is currently pursuing an MFA in Sound Art at Columbia University.
Shirken’s performances and compositions have been presented at a range of institutions and festivals, including Pioneer Works, Cannes, Artissima, WSA, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New Museum, Rhizome, Pageant Sustain Release, Dripping Music & Arts Festival, NYC Winter Jazz Fest, Public Records, Cafe Oto, Trauma Bar (DE), Station Gare Des Mines (FR), Long Play Festival, Hyperreality Festival (AT), and Nowadays. He is the founder of 29 Speedway, a record label, performance series, and multimedia studio focused on improvisational electronic music, multichannel sound installations, and experimental performance in nontraditional spaces.
Shirken has contributed to projects for Red Bull, Sony, RCA, MTV, Mute, Ermenegildo Zegna, Benjamin Bratton's Antikythera, The Dare, Future Classic, NNA Tapes, and Splice. He also performs and produces for and plays modular synthesizer in the experimental free jazz ensemble Nu Jazz, alongside Dan Orlowski (Deli Girls), Jason Lindner (David Bowie’s Blackstar Orchestra), and other notable figures from the New York underground. As a DJ, he has made appearances on NTS, The Lot Radio, Dublab and various clubs.
His work has been featured in The New York Times, Art Basel, Document Journal, Resident Advisor, Dazed, Bandcamp, The Line of Best Fit, Billboard, Office, and Artnet.
