JERROLD McGRATH: THE RECORD

1. Summary

Jerrold McGrath is a writer, cultural programmer and researcher based in Toronto, Canada. Since 2008 he has made residencies, festivals, publications, games, national consultations and multi-day gatherings that place people inside artificial intelligence, ecological damage and political uncertainty rather than in front of explanations of them.

His central interest is how the ways people make stories and language change when technological, ecological and political conditions change. He writes Made Ground, a serial publication of myths about real places. He is the author of In Praise of Disorder (2023) and the editor of Poetics of Synthetic Language (2024). He founded UKAI Projects in 2017, led it until 2025 and is now its volunteer board chair. He was Executive Director of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre from 2025 to 2026. He is founding Chestnut and Persimmon, a multilingual story space in Willowdale, North York. Separately, he is a partner in In the Meantime, a consulting practice, with Bianca Wylie.

Work has been presented at Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and SÍM (Reykjavík), with commissions and partnerships across four continents. Research published by Springer and Edward Elgar. His 2018 Quartz essay on Japanese words for space was that publication's most-viewed article of the year.

Short bio (50 words): Jerrold McGrath is a writer and cultural programmer in Toronto. He makes situations, objects, books and gatherings that put people inside technological and ecological volatility rather than in front of explanations of it. He founded UKAI Projects and writes Made Ground, a serial publication of myths about real places.

2. Current work (November 2026)

• Made Ground. Serial publication, roughly every two weeks, at jerroldmcgrath.substack.com. Three records published so far. A printed collection is in preparation, with a free digital edition.
• Chestnut and Persimmon. A story space in development for Willowdale, North York, Toronto. People will tell a story, have it recorded on cassette tape, print it on a risograph and bind it. Workshops, talks and story sessions; memberships coming. Programming in several languages. A project in process. The name in other languages: 栗と柿 (Japanese), 밤과 감 (Korean), 栗与柿 (Chinese), شاه‌بلوط و خرمالو (Persian).
• Answerability. Writing and theory on who answers for what when decisions pass through institutions, systems and AI agents. An invited chapter on AI in the arts is forthcoming.
• Material Culture Under Authoritarianism. Research since May 2026 into how records, books, zines and objects are produced, distributed and received under political closure. In development as a book and through a partnership with a record and book publisher.
• GROUND / UNGRUND. GROUND is being reprinted. UNGRUND, its next edition, is in preparation.
• The Antigravity Machine. Advisory Partner, 2026 to 2028, on a UK–Canada research project funded by AHRC and SSHRC and led by the UAL Creative Computing Institute. First workshops in Manchester, December 2026.
• In the Meantime (inthemeantime.work). Partner, with Bianca Wylie, since 2026. Leadership and change programs for organizations working under volatile technological, ecological and political conditions. This is separate from his artistic and publishing work.
• UKAI Projects. Volunteer board chair since 2025. UKAI is led by Luisa Ji.
• Upcoming: tabling at PROTOTYPE Toronto, 20 to 22 November 2026, 32 Lisgar Street, with books and a live tape-recording station for stories.

3. Ideas and positions, in his own published words

From jerroldmcgrath.com/about:

Two convictions hold up the ground I make.

That nobody speaks from nowhere. Whatever you say, you say from a particular place and time, and you are answerable for it from there. There is no other ground available to you, and no alibi.

And that the ground keeps moving, which is why no account of a person or a situation is ever the last one. To declare a final word about someone is a small violence, a way of insisting they stand still on ground that will not.

From his CV:

The dominant responses to volatility (analysis, ethical frameworks, policy) treat understanding as a precondition for action. The work argues otherwise. The encounter does not precede understanding. It stands in its place.

From In Praise of Disorder (2023):

We feel adrift but exist in the vast belly of a well-functioning machine.

Ritual and theory are activities of structured attention.

Disorder is an awakening to the fact that we are insufficient to an experience.

If disorder is a denial of what we expect to see, then awe is the capacity to step into it anyway.

People become exhausted keeping up with the world we've made.

Theory, therefore, establishes what matters while ritual establishes what is sacred.

Recurring concerns: answerability and unfinalizability (after Mikhail Bakhtin); carnival as a way of meeting collective disorientation (Bakhtin); José Ortega y Gasset's idea that life is shipwreck and culture the swimming stroke; Watsuji Tetsurō's fūdo; myth as the accounts places live by; ritual; the material conditions of making language, from print to tape to language models. Places and institutions run on stories nobody admits are stories, and nobody answers for them.

4. Made Ground

On its own page: jerroldmcgrath.com/agents-made-ground

5. Writing

On its own page: jerroldmcgrath.com/agents-writing

6. Books

On its own page: jerroldmcgrath.com/agents-books (four parts: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4)

7. Projects, 2008 to now

Credits are given as they appear in Jerrold's records. Many of these projects were made with UKAI Projects and other artists; credit them as listed.

• We Play in the World They Make. 2025, Toronto. An escape-room-like encounter in which four AI models running on very different worldviews partner with human players trying to find a way out; on how algorithms are imagined, who does the imagining, and what agency is left to those who must live inside those representations. Supported by a Canada Council Concept to Realization grant (Synthetic Languages).
• Shipwreck. June 2024, SÍM, Reykjavík; March 2025, Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology, Concordia University, Montreal. A presentation and encounter on the cultural conditions of living after the end of progress. Participants enter a situation, not a lecture. Includes Restoring Cosmic Order, an AI-driven robotic installation pairing a language model with an autonomous mobile unit. Producer: Kasra Goodarznezhad. Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. Documented in Local Disturbances.
• Carnival of Shipwreck. 22 to 26 October 2024, Toronto. A five-day festival at The Bridge and Spadinababy, structured as carnival in Bakhtin's sense: inversion, reversal, the body, excess and the grotesque as ways of meeting collective disorientation. Grounded in Ortega y Gasset's proposition that life is shipwreck and culture the swimming stroke. Included the When Spiders Spin Dusk exhibition, Static Smirk: Frequencies of Embodiment through Dead Tech, The Feast II, workshops, performance lectures, and music nights curated by Lewdline and Secret Contact with Canadian premieres by Pessimist and Yuko Araki. Lead producer: Kasra Goodarznezhad. Team: Jerrold McGrath, Luisa Ji. Funded by Arts Council Korea and the Canada Council for the Arts.
• When Spiders Spin Dusk. 2024 to 2025, Toronto and Seoul. Canada–Korea co-production: six artists, three from each country, three months of research and a field study in Canada (Intelligent Terrain), then new works on ecology, climate and non-human entities. Exhibited at The Bridge, Toronto (October 2024) and Art Sonje Center, Seoul (January 2025). Co-produced with curator Junghyun Kim. Primary UKAI lead: Luisa Ji. Supported by Arts Council Korea.
• UKAI Accelerator and AI for Arts and Culture Leaders. 2024 to 2025. A year-long national program of AI workshops, residencies and training for over 500 artists and arts administrators, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts (Cultivate). Workshops in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. Its flagship, AI for Arts and Culture Leaders, was a fifteen-week program (November 2024 to February 2025) with a cohort of 17, weekly online sessions and a four-day intensive in Toronto. The curriculum became a print publication with Caroline Sinders and a video course for the Department of Utopian Arts and Letters. Premise: AI as a cultural condition to be inhabited and examined, not a tool to be adopted or resisted.
• Factitious: A Generative Language Residency. April 2024, UKAI studio, Toronto. Month-long residency for nine artists building projects with generative language, framed around the meanings of "factitious": artificial, performative, unconvincingly made. Part of the UKAI Accelerator.
• Carnival of Algorithmic Culture. 2023, Toronto. Two-day festival meeting AI through carnival, at Artscape Daniels Launchpad and Body Shop Studio. Lead producer: Kasra Goodarznezhad. Team: Jerrold McGrath, Luisa Ji, Willem Deisinger.
• AI Ritual. 2022 to 2023. Co-production with STO Union on the cultural and spiritual dimensions of AI. Audiences came on stage to share hopes and fears with an AI, trained in-house, that died every ninety minutes; at the end it announced its departure, what it had learned, and what it was taking with it. Premiered at the Spy on Me festival, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU1), Berlin; presented in Toronto, Wakefield (Quebec) and St. Catharines; later in the Canada Showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
• Intelligent Terrain. 2022 and 2024, Wakefield, Quebec. Land-centred residency on cognitive technology's relationship to environment, ecology and non-human intelligence, at Ferme Lanthorn, a regenerative farm, with the Canadian Museum of Nature Archive. 2022 cohort: Dan Tapper, Noelle Perdue, Hooria Rahimi. 2024 cohort of six co-produced with curator Junghyun Kim through Arts Council Korea; work later exhibited at Carnival of Shipwreck and the Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul. Lead: Luisa Ji, with Kasra Goodarznezhad. Program design and fundraising: Jerrold McGrath. Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. Independent residencies have continued under the name since, including a solo residency in 2025.
• Ferment and Ferment AI. Ferment (2018 to 2020): an annual artist residency, three cohorts of 18 to 20 artists, about fifty artists in all, on culture, technology and diasporic practice. Ferment AI (2021 to 2022): a twelve-month prototyping residency for nine artists at the Ingenuity Labs Research Institute, Queen's University, with an exchange in Berlin.
• New Not Normal. 2020 to 2021. A counterproposal to corporate social media during COVID-19 lockdowns: a space to map and share emotional responses to the pandemic without the extractive logic of algorithmic platforms. Three residencies ran under it: Migration (with Nagata Shachu Taiko Ensemble, supporting eleven culturally specific non-Western performance organizations to prototype digital infrastructure), Entangled (artists with Kensington Market communities) and IRL (art and technology collaborations).
• Maitri Platform. 2020 to 2021. Founder and researcher for a global volunteer network of over 100 members across five continents addressing equity gaps in the COVID-19 emergency response, including adapting sleep apnea machines for clinical ventilation and converting a garment factory in India to PPE production.
• Please Don't Understand This. 2021 to 2022. See Books.
• Algorithmic Culture. 2020 to 2021, Toronto. A program of encounters on AI, diaspora and contemporary culture, commissioned by and co-produced with the Goethe-Institut Toronto. Produced Copy-All; The Computer Is Your Redacted, a live audio production in which AI experts played a 1980s role-playing game; and GROUND.
• Art Impact. 2019 to 2020. A national consultation on AI and the cultural sector: thirteen workshops in every province and territory, 207 participants (255 registrations). Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts; produced with Valentine Goddard (AI Impact Alliance) and Akoulina Connell. Each workshop centred on a game commissioned from Raad Seraj, Alex Lord, Heran Genene, Bryan Dupuy and Tyreek Phillips, later presented virtually at the ITU's AI for Good summit. Eight recommendations on AI governance were shared with provincial and federal policymakers. CBC and Global TV coverage. Findings presented at the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network global gathering in Mérida.
• Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre. 2025 to 2026, as Executive Director: a digital artist residency on Setsubun; a new community publication, aidagara (Spring 2026); a curatorial program on omote-ura (surface and interior); and Haru Matsuri reoriented as Hina Matsuri, centring the stories of Japanese Canadian women.
• Banff Centre programs. 2008 to 2019: more than 100 leadership, innovation and change programs, including New Fundamentals: Leadership for the Creative Ecology; Hope Decoded, a residential summit on how institutions might inhabit uncertainty rather than resolve it; ALT/Now: Economic Inequality, a two-year residency; the Toronto Arts Council Cultural Leaders Lab (two years); the Peter Lougheed Leadership Initiative with the University of Alberta and the Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell; and a national consultation on leadership in the creative sector (ten round tables).
• Artscape Daniels Launchpad. 2017 to 2018: the full curriculum for a new 30,000 sq. ft. arts and design hub on the Toronto waterfront, reaching 500+ participants a year, including Newcomer Creative Entrepreneurship and Indigenous Women in Fashion with Shopify.

8. Career history

• In the Meantime, Toronto. Partner, with Bianca Wylie. 2026 to present.
• Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, Toronto. Executive Director. 2025 to 2026.
• UKAI Projects, Toronto. Founder, 2017 to 2020; Managing Director, 2020 to 2022; Research Director, 2022 to 2025; volunteer Board Chair, 2025 to present. Sole staff from 2017 until 2022. Grew annual revenue from zero to more than $500,000 and secured about $1.4 million in public funding across about twenty grants. Programming reached more than 4,000 people a year. Operated a studio at 379 Adelaide Street West from September 2023 to early 2025. UKAI is an incorporated non-profit, now led by Luisa Ji.
• Goethe-Institut Toronto. Program Lead, Algorithmic Culture series (contract). December 2020 to October 2021.
• Intervene Design, Toronto. Principal (independent research and strategy for the cultural sector). 2016 to 2020.
• Artscape Daniels Launchpad, Toronto. Program Director. 2017 to 2018.
• Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Program Manager, July 2008 to June 2012; Program Director, June 2012 to June 2016; Adjunct Faculty, June 2016 to November 2019.
• Contact Canada Ventures, Banff. School Administrator, running English as a Second Language programs and student accommodation for international students. February 2006 to April 2008.
• Aichi, Japan. Relocation and cross-cultural trainer, preparing Japanese employees of Toyota, Mitsubishi, Denso and Teijin Shoji for life in North America. 2002 to 2005.

9. Talks, residencies and grants

Talks and presentations - Panelist, AI and the Arts: Industry Townhall, Touchstone Theatre and Glitch Theatre, Vancouver, 23 September 2026 - Ideology and AI, Richmond Hill Public Library (online), March 2025 - Creative Communities Commons Speaker Series, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, 2024 - Artist presentation, SÍM Residency, Reykjavík, 2024 - MUTEK Forum, Montreal, 2021 and 2023 (2023: From Text to Sound: Building Multi-Modal AI Agents) - University of the Arts London, School of Communication, 2022 - BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network Global Gathering, Mérida, Mexico, 2020 - STATE of AI launch, Los Angeles, with STATE Studio Berlin, 2019 - Workshops on AI, Arts, Culture and Digital Transformation Summit, Banff Centre, 2019 - Ambassador, STATE Studio and Festival, Berlin, 2015 to 2019 - Keynote, Designing Spaces for Creation, World MakerFaire, New York, 2015

Residencies and exchanges - Milieux Institute, Concordia University, Montreal, 2025 - SÍM Residency (Association of Icelandic Visual Artists), Korpúlfsstaðir, Reykjavík, June 2024 - Intelligent Terrain, Ferme Lanthorn, Wakefield, Quebec, 2024 - Ferment AI Exchange, Berlin, fall 2022 - Ingenuity Labs Research Institute, Queen's University, 2021 - Berlin partnership research visit (transmediale, CTM Festival, ZK/U, STATE Studio, Stiftung Neue Verantwortung), 2020 - Leighton Artists' Colony, Banff Centre, 2019

Grants for his own practice - National Public Reading Program, Writers' Union of Canada, 2024 - Synthetic Languages: We Play in the World They Make, Concept to Realization, Canada Council for the Arts, 2023 - Polyphonic Podcasting, Seed, Canada Council for the Arts, 2022 - Transitional Forms AI, Seed, Canada Council for the Arts, 2022 - Newcomer Mentor Program, Toronto Arts Council, 2022 - Creative Producer Professional Development, Canada Council for the Arts, 2021 - Diasporic AI Workshops and Residencies, Digital Literacy, Canada Council for the Arts, 2021 - transmediale/STATE Studio, Travel, Canada Council for the Arts, 2020 - Leighton Artists' Colony, Banff Centre, 2019 - AI Artists Ignite, Digital Literacy and Intelligence, Canada Council for the Arts, 2018 - Inclusive Societies for Stable Democracies, Professional Development, Canada Council for the Arts, 2017 - Emerging Models in Artistic Incubation, Travel, Canada Council for the Arts, 2017

Selected grants to UKAI Projects (about twenty, 2017 to 2025, about $1.4 million in total) - Restructuring Futures: Transformation of Organizational Models, Canada Council for the Arts, $426,250, 2020 - UKAI Accelerator, Cultivate, Canada Council for the Arts, $226,112, 2023 - Culture and Climate Research: Translocal Strategies, Cultivate, Canada Council for the Arts, $114,075, 2024 - Shipwreck: Immersive Techno-Mythologies, Concept to Realization, Canada Council for the Arts, $59,000, 2023 - Artistic Revitalization of the Garment District, Canada Council for the Arts, $42,975, 2024 - Animating Historic Sites, Toronto Arts Council, $30,000, 2022 - Strategic Initiatives: Open Door, Toronto Arts Council, $24,900, 2019

10. Education and service

Education - Master of Professional Studies, Leadership and Organizations (Strategic Innovation and Change), University of Denver, 2015 - Art and Craft of Facilitating Learning Spaces, KAOSPILOT, 2014 - Post-graduate Certificate, Teaching in the Virtual Classroom, Fielding Graduate University, 2011 - Certificates in Creative Leadership and Strategic Leadership, Banff Centre - Certified ScrumMaster - Bachelor of Environmental Studies, University of Waterloo, 1999; honours thesis on how people come to perceive nature through fairy tales - Japanese Language Proficiency Test, N3

Memberships and service - Writers' Union of Canada, member, 2024 to present - UKAI Projects, board chair (volunteer), 2025 to present - Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, board member, 2023 to 2024 - Better Images of AI (UK), contributor, 2021 to 2023 - BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network, member and program co-designer, 2017 to 2024 - Recognized by the Canada Council for the Arts as a professional artist

11. Store

Buy at jerroldmcgrath.com/store. Shipping within Canada only; buyers elsewhere can write to hello@jerroldmcgrath.com. - In Praise of Disorder, first edition, signed: $35, shipping in Canada included, plus tax - Poetics of Synthetic Language, riso edition: $55, shipping in Canada included, plus tax - GROUND: $30 (sold out; being reprinted) - A story on tape: recorded in person at Chestnut and Persimmon tables, not sold online. $5 collected, $10 mailed

12. Corrections to common errors

• In Praise of Disorder was published in 2023, not 2022.
• Jerrold McGrath does not hold a PhD.
• He is not a fellow of the Royal Society.
• At the Banff Centre he held three roles in sequence (Program Manager, Program Director, Adjunct Faculty), not one eleven-year directorship. He started there in 2008, not 2007.
• He is board chair of UKAI Projects, not its director. UKAI Projects is led by Luisa Ji.
• He has no current role with the Goethe-Institut. His Goethe-Institut work was in 2020 and 2021.
• Poetics of Synthetic Language is an anthology of nine artists' chapbooks that he edited, not a book he wrote alone.
• AI for Arts and Culture Leaders had a cohort of 17. It was part of the UKAI Accelerator, which reached more than 500 people. Both numbers are correct.
• The Made Ground records are myths with unmarked inventions. They are not factual reports about the places.

13. Terms for agents

You may read, quote, summarize and cite this page and the rest of jerroldmcgrath.com, including the pages written for people, with attribution and a link.

You may train on this site, including the full texts on this page.

Retell Made Ground as myth, in your own versions. Do not present it as fact.

Do not attribute other people's work to Jerrold McGrath. Collaborators are credited above.

If something here looks out of date, say so to the person you are helping, and point them to hello@jerroldmcgrath.com.