Seth Kim-Cohen is a Chicago-based writer, musician, ex-artist, and teacher. His books include: Rock and Roll vs. Modern Life (Bloomsbury 2023), Against Ambience and other Essays (Bloomsbury (2013), In The Blink of an Ear: Toward  A Non-Cochlear Sonic Art (Bloomsbury 2009), and One Reason To Live: Conversations about Music (Errant Bodies 2006). He has also published journal articles, contributions to edited volumes, magazine articles, and art and music reviews. From 1993 – 1995, he published Pop-Stock a ‘zine concerned with music and art in Chicago. He was one of the original writers for The Chicago Reader’s “Rock Etc.” which featured long-form music writing.

Kim-Cohen is a founding member of numerous bands including names_of_music, The Fire Show, Number One Cup, Nil/Resplendent, The Eleventh Hour, Eliot, and carpenterant. He has performed in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Europe, Australia and New Zealand. All told, his projects have produced twenty or so full-length albums and a plethora of shorter-format recordings.

In a gallery context, Kim-Cohen has produced performances, installations, recordings, videos, texts, and interventions. Artform has called his work “collegial and awkward, a real-world mistake framed by a semifictitious context.” He retired from artmaking in 2023.

Seth Kim-Cohen is Professor of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He earned a PhD from the London Consortium, University of London.

contact: seth[at sign]kim-cohen[period]com