James Coker was born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1967. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern University in 1990. His studies ranged from Math, Physics and Computer Science to Literature and the English Major in Writing.  From there he traveled west to Stanford University and completed a Masters of Science degree in Computer Science in 1993. In addition to a specialty in programming language design and implementation, he began formal music studies with several courses in Computer Music and Sound Synthesis.

After moving back to the Chicago area in 1993, Coker began photography work through a series of private tutorials and workshops with Arthur Lazar. He also became an early member of a San Francisco-based startup company called jGuru, focusing on the then-new programming language called Java.

In 1998 Coker moved to New Mexico and soon began writing music software, and working with video art. In the spring of 2003, he released a software program called Numerology, "A modular sequencer designed for real-time improvisation by performing musicians", and in 2004 participated in his first public art exhibition as part of "The Domino Effect" at the Santa Fe Art Institute, displaying two video pieces, "The Fisherman" and "Radio Astronomy".

Coker currently resides in Albuqerque, where his activites include the further development and expansion of Numerology, landscape photography, regular participation in ensemble-based improvised music performances, and the cinematography, editing and development of custom processing algorithms for a variety of music-video and video-art projects.

Coker's current art-work focuses on a series of short video pieces with accompanying prints on canvas. Recent exhibitions include the video "Tractor" with one print for "Boys and Their Toys", at Salon Mar Graff in Santa Fe, and the video "Ocean #4", at the "Water Planet" exhibition at the New Mexico State Capitol. More information, including still images and video selections, can be found at www.jamescoker.net.