Second Year Sound Art Student Ben Shirken Voted Finalist in the 2026 Lumen Prize
Ben Shirken, second year Sound Art student, has been made a finalist in the 2026 Lumen Prize, a $30,000 award that "exists to support artists exploring the relationship between art and technology in all its forms," according to the Lumen Prize website. Shirken is being considered for this prize for his piece Cache Machine, an exhibition in the New York City-Based gallery KAJE.
Cache Machine is a multimedia installation investigating the "onslaught of transient digital media amassing in contemporary life,” according to a press release from KAJE Gallery. "The acceleration of industrial 'intelligence' is leaving an immaterial debris field in its wake. In digital form we call it 'slop,' but its material detritus is mostly nameless," according to the gallery's release. To represent this accumulation and new norm, Shirken’s exhibit centers on a machine running a local image generation model on an endless loop. Images of technological detritus accumulate within a digital cache and get projected onto the rear windows of two Ford Escape hatchbacks. The wipers sweep and light flickers with each new generation of images, meanwhile a wall-mounted truck dashcam displays pre-recorded footage of road accidents altered through aesthetically exaggerated video software. In addition to these components, the space includes five overlapping sound sources. Among them is a 62-channel wavefield synthesis array, a dense speaker system placing AI-generated data center fan sounds at precise locations. Electromagnetic Field (EMF) microphones are placed on the main GPUs, a hard drive, and a fan unit which capture the computation of sounds itself. "Cache Machine provides access to experiencing the (often restricted) territories of the ‘thinking’ machines, hurling sonic psyops and spiking electrical strain in its wake. It turns the lifecycle of AI-generated media into a durational, embodied experience."
"Cache Machine utilizes a combination of real, live and generated sounds and imagery to create a somatic representation of pollution and waste," according to Shirken. The idea for the installation came to him after taking Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Media Noam Elcott’s “AI, Imaging, Art” Art History in late 2025.
Ben Shirken—who goes by the moniker Ex Wiish—is an artist whose work spans installation, generative music & film, audiovisual performance, and sculpture. In his practice, he contemplates how contemporary tools of communication, analysis, and production alter individual relationships to the present while considering alternative futures. His current investigation, of which Cache Machine is a prime example, is a look into the conflicts resulting from development of digital and automatic networks and systems. 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’s works have been presented by Pioneer Works, Cannes, IFFR, Artissima, WSA, and The Brooklyn Academy of Music. He also performs in and produces for the experimental free jazz ensemble Nu Jazz, alongside Dan Orlowski (Deli Girls), Jason Lindner (David Bowie’s Blackstar Orchestra). His work has been featured in The New York Times, Art Basel, Document Journal, Billboard, Office, and Artnet.
"The Lumen Prize nomination is of course an honor given the lineage of artists who have been considered for the award," says Shirken. "I appreciate the Lumen jury making a strive to recognize work that critiques the current establishment and pushes back against inevitable AI usurpation, especially during a time when so much art is being rewarded and funded for using AI as a novelty."
Past recipients of the Lumen Prize include artists such as Refik Anadol, Andy Lomas, Gibson/Martelli and Mario Klingemann. Read more about the award here.