https://jaceclayton.com Jace Clayton Tue, 18 Nov 2025 01:55:28 +0000 https://jaceclayton.com en https://jaceclayton.com/tech Tue, 18 Nov 2025 01:55:28 +0000 Jace Clayton https://jaceclayton.com/tech BIO TEXT Jace Clayton - Shortest Version ~50 words:For almost 3 decades, Jace Clayton has created adventurous DJ sets that integrate sounds from the global South with the latest developments in electronic music. He is the author of Uproot: Travels in 21st-Century Music and Digital Culture and writes widely on art.Jace Clayton - Shorter version ~60 words:&nbsp; Jace Clayton is an artist and writer based in New York, also known for his work as DJ /rupture. He is the author of Uproot: Travels in 21st Century Music and Digital Culture (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016) and is Director of Graduate Studies at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts and Assistant Professor of Studio Arts at Bard College. PROMO PHOTOS&nbsp; Note: photo credits are included in the file name &nbsp;<img width="400" height="500" width_o="400" height_o="500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bb651e22ec26bad447449a3e05f5f17a27c987a8014b88c59f16ac32e4ad9c80/Jace-Portrait-small.jpg" data-mid="244861575" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/400/i/bb651e22ec26bad447449a3e05f5f17a27c987a8014b88c59f16ac32e4ad9c80/Jace-Portrait-small.jpg" />Download:&nbsp;High-resolution TIF file&nbsp; <img width="400" height="500" width_o="400" height_o="500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/994c4e010a388df393b0bb872234fd2721deb6512e6c6a547327b0155ebcb7fd/Jace-Full-view-small.jpg" data-mid="244861576" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/400/i/994c4e010a388df393b0bb872234fd2721deb6512e6c6a547327b0155ebcb7fd/Jace-Full-view-small.jpg" /> Download: High-resolution TIF file <img width="501" height="400" width_o="501" height_o="400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/100a9d1fa97c478e8ce155ec15efc9caa3ff9a2f10b0a45720d063e5464da89b/Jace-DoubleExposure-small.jpg" data-mid="244861577" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/501/i/100a9d1fa97c478e8ce155ec15efc9caa3ff9a2f10b0a45720d063e5464da89b/Jace-DoubleExposure-small.jpg" /> Download: High-resolution TIF file Right-Click, Save-As -- &gt; Photo credits located in file-name <img width="2159" height="3024" width_o="2159" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/88da480127152bda0919a918684d8abf3afb5f2f8981b45e05439a70bf5d16a3/JaceClayton-portrait.jpg" data-mid="241422743" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/88da480127152bda0919a918684d8abf3afb5f2f8981b45e05439a70bf5d16a3/JaceClayton-portrait.jpg" /> <img width="1400" height="932" width_o="1400" height_o="932" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/570d125ba64905d3d3037361d8c0157df02713ab415330c0fbe92259a5ae07b2/jaceclayton-photo-credit-erez-avissar.jpg" data-mid="240765428" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/570d125ba64905d3d3037361d8c0157df02713ab415330c0fbe92259a5ae07b2/jaceclayton-photo-credit-erez-avissar.jpg" /> https://jaceclayton.com/Home Mon, 15 Aug 2022 23:07:12 +0000 Jace Clayton https://jaceclayton.com/Home JACE CLAYTON is an artist and writer, also known for his work as DJ /rupture. He is the author of Uproot: Travels in 21st-Century Music and Digital Culture (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) and is Assistant Professor of Studio Art and Director of Graduate Studies at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College. ︎︎︎ &nbsp;&nbsp; bio &amp; contact&nbsp; #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; false;clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; width: px;} /* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */ PROJECTS&nbsp; They Are Part (2023) Solo exhibition at the MassArt Art Museum 40 Part Part (2022)commmissioned installation for the FRONT Triennial Riotsville U.S.A. (2022)original score for the film by Sierra Pettengill. 🌊🔊¯_(ツ)_/¯ (2019)commissioned installation for the&nbsp; Sharjah Biennial The Great Salt (2018)solo exhibition, Harvard Art Museums︎︎︎ &nbsp; more &nbsp;&nbsp; WRITING Sung Tieu @ M.I.T. List Gallery review, 4Columns Whitney Biennial review, ARTFORUMCamille Norment @ Dia Chelsea review, 4Columns Afrofuturist Period Room @ The Metropolitan Museum of Art review, 4Columns Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry tribute, Pitchfork On Carl Stone &amp; Spotify, ARTFORUM ︎︎︎ &nbsp; more&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; UPROOT! <img width="304" height="492" width_o="304" height_o="492" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/058cc1fe30a895a4dc2cfe24b4a5021352e1e75871dd5b1ecce2983076ec28f0/uproot-book-3d-crop-304x492.png" data-mid="150602974" border="0" data-scale="94" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/304/i/058cc1fe30a895a4dc2cfe24b4a5021352e1e75871dd5b1ecce2983076ec28f0/uproot-book-3d-crop-304x492.png" />The fact that you are reading this proves that the algorithms don’t always win.&nbsp; Chances are you’ll enjoy&nbsp; my book.&nbsp; &lt;3 /j NEWSLETTER I’m on Instagram, but the best way to follow what I’m doing is via my quarterly newlsetter. 40 Part Part in the news! Thoughtful &amp; detailed ArtNet review by Rebecca Rose Cuomo: “Jace Clayton’s Immersive, Interactive Sound Installations Open Up New Worlds”&nbsp; &nbsp;_ Ohio PBS TV appearance: <img width="3000" height="2143" width_o="3000" height_o="2143" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0d60a5ad2ab685a632c76ed647f78663bf3895ce6de854da4d14abab22966550/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_ClevelandPublicLibrary_01.jpg" data-mid="150493108" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0d60a5ad2ab685a632c76ed647f78663bf3895ce6de854da4d14abab22966550/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_ClevelandPublicLibrary_01.jpg" />&nbsp;“My installation is silent until a visitor plays audio through it over their phone. The magic happens when you choose a sound/song that you know, then hear how it dynamically transforms &amp; spatializes in various ways across 40 speakers. This is why I haven't posted any video: there's no "representative" sound. It reacts differently to different input and the associations you bring to your selections have a big impact on your experience... But this clip of @cokes_tony playing @djhank_ shot by @fronttriennial curator @prem_krishnamurthy was too good! '40 Part Part' is on display at the Cleveland Public Library until early October, as part of FRONT Triennial.” This PBS Newshour clip provides a good introduction to Clayton’s musical approach and his book Uproot: Clayton recently visited Amoeba Records in LA for their What's In My Bag? series: https://jaceclayton.com/40-Part-Part Tue, 23 Aug 2022 21:19:22 +0000 Jace Clayton https://jaceclayton.com/40-Part-Part JACE CLAYTON PROJECTS 40 Part Part40 Part Part is a participatory sound installation that transforms familiar audio into a kaleidoscopic and immersive sonic experience. The artwork takes the form of forty speakers arranged in a large circle and pointed inward. The installation is silent until a library visitor connects via Bluetooth or plugs the provided cables into their electronic device. When that happens, Clayton’s system begins playing the visitor’s audio—albeit reorganized by a complex algorithm that shifts, mutates, and spatializes the incoming sounds. Jace Clayton, 40 Part Part, 2022 debuted at the Cleveland Public Library’s Brett Hall, for FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, on view from July-October 2022. It was commissiond by FRONT and the New York Philharmonic. <img width="3000" height="2143" width_o="3000" height_o="2143" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0d60a5ad2ab685a632c76ed647f78663bf3895ce6de854da4d14abab22966550/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_ClevelandPublicLibrary_01.jpg" data-mid="151153144" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0d60a5ad2ab685a632c76ed647f78663bf3895ce6de854da4d14abab22966550/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_ClevelandPublicLibrary_01.jpg" /> https://jaceclayton.com/Uproot-Travels-in-21st-Ct-Music-and-Digital-Culture Tue, 23 Aug 2022 23:47:41 +0000 Jace Clayton https://jaceclayton.com/Uproot-Travels-in-21st-Ct-Music-and-Digital-Culture JACE CLAYTON Uproot: Travels in 21st-Century Music and Digital Culture In 2001 Jace Clayton was an unknown DJ who recorded a three-turntable, sixty-minute mix and put it online to share with friends. Within weeks, Gold Teeth Thief became an international calling card, whisking Clayton away to play a nightclub in Zagreb, a gallery in Osaka, a former brothel in Sao Paolo, and the American Museum of Natural History. Just as the music world made its fitful, uncertain transition from analog to digital, Clayton found himself on the front lines of creative upheavals of art production in the twenty-first century globalized world. Uproot is a guided tour of this newly-opened cultural space. With humor, insight, and expertise, Clayton illuminates the connections between a Congolese hotel band and the indie-rock scene, Mexican rodeo teens and Israeli techno, and Whitney Houston and the robotic voices in rural Moroccan song, and offers an unparalleled understanding of music in the digital age. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;Buy it now! <img width="304" height="492" width_o="304" height_o="492" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/058cc1fe30a895a4dc2cfe24b4a5021352e1e75871dd5b1ecce2983076ec28f0/uproot-book-3d-crop-304x492.png" data-mid="151153205" border="0" data-scale="63" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/304/i/058cc1fe30a895a4dc2cfe24b4a5021352e1e75871dd5b1ecce2983076ec28f0/uproot-book-3d-crop-304x492.png" /> &nbsp; "[Clayton's] frank curiosity and broad musical tastes form the basis for this terrific book about the globalization of ideas in our age of 'digital superabundance' . . . Humor and humility infuse descriptions of a street dance party in Kingston, Jamaica; traffic in Cairo; and a smoke-filled music store in Beirut. Throughout, we feel the moral weight of the personal stories behind the music . . . Guided by empathy and openness to the new, this DJ has his ear to the ground." —Daphne Kalotay, New York Times Book Review “Jace Clayton is a bricoleur like no other whose curiosity leads him fearlessly beyond fixed cultural boundaries to make connections and find insights that are brilliant and unique. He looks at the world and makes culture from gorgeously odd angles―every sentence of this book is a gem.” —Elizabeth Alexander “I’m so glad to read such an upbeat version of the future of music and the music-listening public. Uproot raises some interesting propositions about how musicians will be making music in the ever-evolving world. I like Jace Clayton’s positive spin.” —Laurie Anderson “In this exhilarating book, Clayton, aka DJ Rupture, guides readers on an international tour of various forms of music and music-making technologies within many cultures … Clayton urges readers to embrace the power of music, recognizing its energetic and enduring capacity to capture and express shared emotions and to become a 'memory palace with room for everybody inside.'" —Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Jace Clayton flows like water around the world” —Diplo “As infectious as a pop hook” —Astra Taylor “[A] sharply detailed exploration of how technology and globalization have transformed participatory audio culture … An engrossing tour of the global cutting edge.” –Kirkus Reviews https://jaceclayton.com/Riotsville Tue, 23 Aug 2022 23:47:21 +0000 Jace Clayton https://jaceclayton.com/Riotsville JACE CLAYTON&nbsp; &nbsp; PROJECTS Riotsville, U.S.A.Original score for Sierra Pettengill’s documentary film, Riotsville, USA. It premiered at 2022 Sundance is available to stream on Hulu. <img width="1000" height="1463" width_o="1000" height_o="1463" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0a4543173707d028e2b8860f4c5ac91db768e231d0a9f0027cad30b324718d62/riotsville2022.jpg" data-mid="151153620" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0a4543173707d028e2b8860f4c5ac91db768e231d0a9f0027cad30b324718d62/riotsville2022.jpg" /> https://jaceclayton.com/Sufi-Plug-Ins Tue, 23 Aug 2022 21:22:02 +0000 Jace Clayton https://jaceclayton.com/Sufi-Plug-Ins JACE CLAYTON PROJECTS SUFI PLUG-INS <img width="1737" height="974" width_o="1737" height_o="974" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f47fc7bf02cb43b8b9d6a71dd30a5209c0c151b58264a10c37aa9ad9499b2b47/sufi-plug-ins---saba-synth-interfaceCROP.jpg" data-mid="151145061" border="0" data-scale="65" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f47fc7bf02cb43b8b9d6a71dd30a5209c0c151b58264a10c37aa9ad9499b2b47/sufi-plug-ins---saba-synth-interfaceCROP.jpg" /> Sufi Plug Ins version 1, released in May 2012, is a free suite of seven audio software tools for Ableton Live (Max4Live). They include four software synthesizers hardwired to North African maqam scales with quartertone tuning built-in, a device called DEVOTION which lowers your computer’s volume 5 times a day during call to prayer (presets include Agnostic, Fervent, Devout), and a drone machine. The devices are clearly labeled in the Berber script of neo-Tifinaght – ⵙⴾⵔⵓ ⵜⴰⵎⵉⵎⵔⴰⵜ. Their mysterious (to non-Amazigh users) yet intuitive layout encourages and rewards experimentation. ‘Roll-over’ infotexts contain fragments of Sufi verse. A series of Sufi Plug Ins Instructional Videos filmed on location in Morocco function as stand-alone art piece https://jaceclayton.com/The-Great-Salt Tue, 23 Aug 2022 23:30:52 +0000 Jace Clayton https://jaceclayton.com/The-Great-Salt JACE CLAYTON PROJECTS The Great Salt The Great Salt (2018) is Clayton's solo exhibition at Harvard Art Museums. The hybrid analog-digital artwork is response, sonic extension, intervention into the complex history of a 17th-century silver vessel, on view in the museums' Lightbox Gallery from October 30, 2018 through February 4, 2019. <img width="1012" height="675" width_o="1012" height_o="675" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/82cf0d5824991d083386a55cc3bd52deb606b6ae30f1ea59ac6450645330f7c9/GreatSalt459802696.jpg" data-mid="151151921" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/82cf0d5824991d083386a55cc3bd52deb606b6ae30f1ea59ac6450645330f7c9/GreatSalt459802696.jpg" /> https://jaceclayton.com/Enkutatash Wed, 24 Aug 2022 03:04:41 +0000 Jace Clayton https://jaceclayton.com/Enkutatash JACE CLAYTON PROJECTS ENKUTATASH እንቁጣጣሽ <img width="600" height="800" width_o="600" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/312c413391193ccb442f8c86c0a3b955430c40d6be13b81ec8b307153962a681/jace-kal-sP1000353.jpg" data-mid="151161348" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/600/i/312c413391193ccb442f8c86c0a3b955430c40d6be13b81ec8b307153962a681/jace-kal-sP1000353.jpg" /> Enkutatash እንቁጣጣሽ is a large-scale public choral work by Jace Clayton, transforming security threats into spiritual renewal. The piece debuted on September 11th 2014, the Ethiopian New Year (Ethiopia uses its own calendar system), and featured a choir singing a musical rendition of the color-coded Homeland Security Threat Level changes superimposed with seasonal African songs. Enkutatash እንቁጣጣሽ treats the changing threat-level data as a musical score to be sung by a D.C. choir and audience participants, using the five-note (pentatonic) Ethiopian musical scale. Accompanying the choir are modified East African harvest songs for masinqo (one-string lute) and voice, performed by Gezachew Habtemariam and Kalkidan Woldermariam. The D.C. area is home to the largest Ethiopian community outside of Ethiopia. After the performance there was music by all-lady DJ crew Anthology of Booty and complimentary vegetarian Ethiopian food in tribute to the holiday, from which the piece takes its name and inspiration. The free outdoor event, commissioned by the 5x5 Project, was staged at the Gateway Pavilion at St. Elizabeth’s East, in the Anacostia neighborhood. St. Elizabeth's is the former national mental institution that currently houses, among others, the Department of Homeland Security. <img width="1665" height="1000" width_o="1665" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/97a74e09a340a06a563a380ed3c54204d6292edebf7ecbe0c6f80aad0bad1172/enkutatash-all-s1.jpg" data-mid="151161347" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/97a74e09a340a06a563a380ed3c54204d6292edebf7ecbe0c6f80aad0bad1172/enkutatash-all-s1.jpg" /> https://jaceclayton.com/Projects-1 Tue, 23 Aug 2022 21:20:06 +0000 Jace Clayton https://jaceclayton.com/Projects-1 JACE CLAYTON PROJECTS WRITING&nbsp; https://jaceclayton.com/_-_ Wed, 24 Aug 2022 01:39:06 +0000 Jace Clayton https://jaceclayton.com/_-_ JACE CLAYTON PROJECTS 🌊🔊¯_(ツ)_/¯&nbsp; 🌊🔊¯_(ツ)_/¯ is a quadrophonic, interactive sound installation powered by several dozen modular synthesizers, commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation for the 2019 Sharjah Biennial. The composition dynamically self-modulates, with continuous, distinct variations throughout four movements. It references melodic modes from the region as well as urban seaside rhythms from Sharjah itself. Three marímbulas (Afro-Cuban bass thumb pianos) surround the synths and can be played by visitors. Although these instruments are unamplified, when plucked, they emit voltage that transforms the electronic composition. <img width="2910" height="2710" width_o="2910" height_o="2710" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/76706cafa935b72cf3b0c469f0b6cff88c2b50e3e07b1b19943f43f22a36a917/SharjahIMG_8534-crop.JPG" data-mid="151159802" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/76706cafa935b72cf3b0c469f0b6cff88c2b50e3e07b1b19943f43f22a36a917/SharjahIMG_8534-crop.JPG" />