What's this ANSI artist doing now?

March 26, 2008 11:39 PM

I've been watching BBS: The Documentary and just finished the "scene" episode. I was struck in particular by Metalhead / Shaggy from iCE. He seemed much, much cooler (my standards, obviously. I also liked Jed from ACiD) than anyone else interviewed. I was kind of into ansi art and demo stuff in high school and college (though not as a participant) and it was refreshing to hear someone kind of deflate the hubris surrounding it. I'd like to see what he's up to now, if anything, but google is failing me. Current work. Websites. Even just his real name.
posted by apetpsychic to computers & internet (9 answers total)

Being that he is a close personal friend of mine, I feel I can say with some authority that Jason Scott would walk across hot coals to give you more information about this guy, if you simply emailed him and asked nicely.
posted by autojack at 11:54 PM on March 26, 2008

Or MeMailed him. He is, after all, MetaFilter's own jscott.
posted by mumkin at 12:41 AM on March 27, 2008 [3 favorites]

One thing you can try is going to the IRC channels #ansi and #acid on EFNET and ask around. I have some ACiD contacts like RaD MaN because I used to do PCBoard mods for acidic back in the day, but nothing for ice. If you want those, let me know.
posted by bertrandom at 11:07 AM on March 27, 2008

Oh, and through the magic of tags (see why they're so damned useful?), there's this AskMe post from last October, which leads me to believe that mefite anaelith could handle the iCE end of things, if you needed. Oh, but anaelith isn't MeFi-mailable. Maybe try empyrean instead. Though I suspect jscott will prove helpful.
posted by mumkin at 12:59 PM on March 27, 2008

Thanks! I'll definitely be writing Jason Scott.
posted by apetpsychic at 10:09 PM on March 27, 2008

Well, maybe not HOT COALS....
posted by jscott at 1:08 PM on March 31, 2008

Actually, let me answer more helpfully.

I have a policy to never give out contact information about anyone I interview, even if the information is easy to find elsewhere. I just don't think it's right. Sometimes the interviewee will tell me to make them reachable, but usually they don't. I will, however, happily forward mail to them which they have the option of responding to.

I have had cases of people wanting to reach people to harass them while pretending to be innocent fans of the documentary, so this has some vague basis of reality.

I can tell you that Metlhead makes his living as a senior graphic designer for an education firm, so he still uses his art skills to the present day.

I'll let him know he has a fan.
posted by jscott at 1:18 PM on March 31, 2008

So, I think I have the answer to this one, because I'm the guy you're looking for. My name is Bensonn.

I just came across this thread semi-recently and been trying to figure if I want to out myself after all these years, but I think now's the time. I'm glad some people enjoyed me in the BBS Documentary, and glad I got the chance to do it thanks to Jason. Thanks for respecting the privacy too Jason.

As for what I've been doing, it's a long story, but my main gig now is working on websites. I've done several, but most are gone or redone by someone else at this point. Most notably I used to work with a graffiti mag called While You Were Sleeping and an artist who goes by Dalek.

After dropping out of the BBS circles. I did the DJing thing for several years around DC playing Drum & Bass as DJ Wreck with a crew called Step Syndicate and I'm now toying with producing Dubstep.

For a while I was running a fairly popular fan website for the Tony Hawk Pro Skater video games called thugXonline or tXo for short. I also ran a short-lived gamer clothing company called Denied Clothing that has some art featured in some older Tony Hawk games.

Beyond that I just recently rediscovered art beyond website design with a project called MemeBots (http://memebots.com), my personal URL is http://bensonn.com, that should give you all the info you need. :)

That about covers it. All-in-all I've tried to stay creative and busy.

I'm happy to reconnect with, or just say hi to, any old BBS heads. [e-mail] will get you straight to me.

Take it easy,
Bensonn/Shaggy/Metal Head
posted by shaggy at 5:11 PM on November 25, 2008 [3 favorites]

And as if anyone needs it, I will verify that this is in fact the real Shaggy/Bensonn.
posted by jscott at 7:45 AM on February 9, 2009