Ben Watson

In late 1986, sensing the coming data storm, Ben Watson took a course in COBOL, RPGII and Systems Analysis at Control Data Institute in Leeds. Over the next decade, work with Relational Databases and Structured Query Language on the Unix operating system (mostly accounts software) granted Watson an unclouded view of the economic imperatives behind ‘open' systems. A contract to write a book about Frank Zappa saved him from a lifetime of IT drudgery. Writing at The Wire (1987-2005) provided an opportunity to develop a critique of cyberboosterism in the realm of music culture, culminating in the formation of The Esemplasm and the release of Frankfurter Ahnung, a manifesto for the anti-capitalist artist. He currently broadcasts on www.resonancefm.com (2 p.m. Wednesdays). A selection of six years' weekly broadcasts may be sampled from www.archive.org/search.php?query=audio%20esemplasm.... Watson lives in Somers Town, London, with Esther Leslie with whom he runs the website www.militantesthetix.co.uk.