The Art of Listening

The skill of listening is discussed by New York-based interdisciplinary artist Jace Clayton in this understanding audiences keynote. Clayton is also a worldwide renowned DJ who goes under the name DJ Rupture and demonstrates how at the basic level DJing is about listening. DJing is about essentially taking fixed texts to listen and layer, creating new music. Yet, there is more to DJing than listening to these texts as it is also about listening to the room.

Clayton shows how DJs view the crowd as an entity with which they are having a dialogue. There is an ability of DJs to filter and curate making something for the moment. As the crowd is there to provide immediate feedback, the DJ is there to be aware of the sensitivities of the audiences. In DJing, there is an ethos of localization, it is not about a grand idea but about tailoring the smaller pieces. This is a great keynote about how skills in DJing can be applied to multiple disciplines.