Benjamin Kidder Hodges is an artist and anthropologist originally from Richmond, Virginia whose research based art and writing often draw on folklore, mythology and media archaeology to call attention to overlooked histories. This involves narrating links between material culture and lived affects from boredom to shock.

While completing his Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin he received a Fulbright grant to Bulgaria which led to his dissertation “Special Affect: Special Effects, Sensation, and Futures in Post-Socialist Bulgaria.” He has taught in Europe, Asia and the U.S.and is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Macau teaching filmmaking, media studies, and cultural studies within the Department of Communication where he has helped to establish the Creative Media Lab.

He has published in the journals WiderScreen, Shima, Mobilities, Etropic and recently guest edited a special issue of the journal Coolabah, On Gases, Clouds, Fogs and Mists. He has chapters in the books Tourist Utopias: Offshore Islands, Enclave Spaces, and Mobile Imaginaries published by Amsterdam University Press and Meta.space – Visions of Space from the Middle Ages to the Digital Age published by Francisco Carolinum Linz OÖ Landes- Kultur GmbH Austria. Forthcoming work includes a chapter in Macau architecture and mutations in the urban realm: an Anthology to be published by Circo de Ideias.

He has exhibited in SVA Gramercy Gallery, 1708 Gallery, Creative Macau, Art Macao Biennale, AFA Macau, University of Macau Museum of Art, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, AMODA (Austin Museum of Digital Art), CURB Center for Architecture and Urbanism, and the Script Road Macao Literary Festival.