This riso-printed collection of nine mini-booklets reflects on the shapes that generative language might take. Printed in Milan and the culmination of a six-month artistic residency, this volume considers the poetics of AI language through the lens of those who are navigating this strange landscape. Nine artists, reflecting a wide range of disciplines and areas of interest, hoped to extend the AI conversation beyond technical or ethical arguments and toward the material implications of the commodification of language as a material.
The anthology posits verbal art in the digital age as a craft contending with a new intermediary, akin to a sculptor’s chisel or a musician’s tabla. The advent of LLMs introduces something new and strange, presenting both challenges and opportunities for the art of writing. This publication invites you to explore prototypes of potential futures for literary creation in the age of artificial intelligence.
Design by @midafiore
Printing by @press_press_milano
Contributions
Leslie Predy
Luisa JI
Jerrold McGrath
Katie Sullivan
Bianca Weeko Martin
JC Fung
Helen Lam
Gurpreet Surman
Darian Razdar
Support provided by @canada.council
What if the chaos you've been trying to fix is actually saving you?
In Praise of Disorder is a quiet rebellion against the algorithmic world that promises efficiency, predictability, and control, but quietly squeezes out everything that makes us human.
This book is an invitation to linger, to interrupt, to resist the urge to optimize every corner of your life. Because disorder isn't the enemy of meaning. It might just be the source of it.
This book is an invitation to celebrate disorder as a practice that helps us deal with what’s coming. Rather than redesigning the world to feel safer, we can create and preserve a culture that acknowledges disorder while cultivating local and small-scale moments that help us adapt to changing conditions.
Pick it up if you've ever felt that the tidier life gets, the less alive it feels.
Link in bio
#InPraiseOfDisorder #JerroldMcGrath #BookRecommendation #SlowLiving #ThinkDifferently #BookstagramCanada #ReadMore #Nonfiction
So, I have a new website up at jerroldmcgrath.com (this is me resting, apparently)
I'm going to be writing a bit and sharing it out to those who are interested.
If you subscribe to the newsletter, I'm also providing a free PDF version of something I wrote early in 2025 that was previously only available in print format.
Representing the Impossible: Telling Stories about the End of the World
It was produced by @ukaiprojects and also serves to document Shipwreck, a month-long art exhibition held in Reykjavik, Iceland in 2024, where Canadian artists installed "ruins of possible futures" in a former dairy farm and Icelandic artists were challenged to make a home among them.
It argues that to grapple with overwhelming abstract crises like climate change, AI, or authoritarianism, we need stories and art that bring these forces into direct, lived contact with human experience rather than leaving them as distant ideological abstractions. It's a short, richly illustrated (very nerdy) read for anyone who has ever felt both compelled and stumped by the state of the world, and wants to think differently about how culture can help us respond.
The website is a skeleton right now, as I'm not entirely sure what's next for me, but you can also pick up copies of two publications that aren't sold out.
I have about 115 copies of In Praise of Disorder left, and any orders in May, I'm happy to sign before sending (and many of you know how uncomfortable signing things is for me). I also have 45 copies of Poetics of Synthetic Language left. This is a fantastic compilation from 9 artists looking at the material implications of generative language.
Let me know what you think.
A (re)(re)introduction
I’m never quite sure how to talk about my career. I was a relocation trainer in the Japanese automotive industry. I was a Program Director at @banffcentre I was the founder of an anarchistic art thing called @ukaiprojects The past year has kept me quite busy with something else I hadn’t done before.
I make art with language, including with AI-generated language - partly to draw attention to how ideologies ossify how we think and how we express ourselves, partly to try to make sense of what’s happening around me.
I’ve been invited to share work at @simresidency in Iceland, at @hauberlin in Berlin, at @w_shed in Bristol. I’ve done workshops in every province and territory of Canada.
I do academic writing and more literary work and sometimes just writing for fun and to test things out.
I believe strongly that culture is how make a home in the world and it’s the best place to go when we have questions without good answers.
That’s the work, I guess. Asking questions then finding people and projects that start to offer up answers. And none of this happens without people. So many wonderful, creative, amazing people.
Well, I have lots of questions, so let me know if you’d like to work with me to find some answers.
Image 1 – me and my robot (Restore Cosmic Order) trained on propaganda from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China – he was unpleasant and much beloved
Image 2 – Poetics of Synthetic Language – collaborative publication developed in Toronto and Milan exploring the material implications of generative language
Image 3 – Stories for Children Lost in the Woods – developed as part of the Intelligent Terrain residency and presented at SIM and @milieux_institute
Image 4 – Ferment AI residency in Berlin (2021)
Image 5 – Carnival – the first utterly unhinged celebration of disorder on Geary
Image 6 – GROUND – a roleplaying game distributed by a giant goat where players help an AI be mourned (played at Watershed in Bristol, UK)
Image 7 – the incredible Yuko Araki at the second Carnival with UKAI Projects at the Bridge
Career Announcement and Notes of Gratitude
I am no longer with the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre after just over a year serving as Executive Director.
The team at the JCCC is an exceptional one and I am extremely grateful that I could be a part of that work.
I am very proud of what we accomplished in such a short time.
Our team reimagined our newsletter as a stylish and bilingual publication being shared internationally (aidagara). We updated Hina Matsuri to look deeply at the invisible work of women. We hosted a digital arts residency around Setsubun and threw beans to cast out misfortune. 800 people danced the Bon Odori at sunset on a hot summer day. Through engaging and visually striking content we doubled our Instagram followers in 6 months to over 12K. Our theme for spring, omote-ura, supported its own exhibition and months of programming. Oshogatsukai saw thousands on hand, enjoying kagami biraki and embracing a time of renewal. I’m proud of our library coming to life with new visitors and volunteers, and of course, the new cafe oriori, soon to be open and featuring input and insights from across the community.
I am so incredibly proud of this team. Our Heritage department getting their much-deserved recognition in upcoming publications and in-person at the Powell Street Festival. Our Programming team launching festival after festival for thousands of community members. Audience Experience transforming our physical and digital spaces and going the extra mile every time. And our Story team making visiting the Centre irresistible. I have been honoured to see their growth and their leadership and will always remember fondly our time together.
I didn’t take many opportunities to rest over the past year, so will prioritize that for a few weeks so please reach out if you’re interested in a walk or a coffee. I have been remiss in keeping in touch with too many of you.
