Humanitas: A ‘sonic’ workout, a campus phenom, and ‘rediscovering’ America

Ash Fure, a “sonic” artist who blends installation with performance, will bring what she describes as “an underworld of sound” to the Yale campus next week.

In the latest edition of Humanitas, a Yale historian earns national honors, a “listening gym” comes to Yale, and Time recognizes a rising star on campus.

Ash Fure, a “sonic” artist who blends installation with performance, will bring what she describes as “an underworld of sound” to the Yale campus next week.

In five separate performances (Oct. 21-28), Fure will perform her new venture, “ANIMAL: A Listening Gym,” which merges sound art installation with live musical performance, at the Yale Schwarzman Center (YSC).

Combining sculpture, art, and sound, the project “brings sound to a dimension that reshapes our surroundings and has people exercising their ears and minds,” said Jennifer Harrison Newman, YSC’s associate artistic director. Guests will be invited to “work out” in a specially designed listening gym, immerse themselves in the music, or both, as Fure performs live on a custom gym rig.

“The project features full-body sonic machines that function like a sensory circuit workout,” Fure said. “You press, you lift, you lean, you lie, you exercise your animal capacity to sense.”

Fure, an associate professor of music at Dartmouth, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2016, has won two Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Rachel Fine, executive director of the Yale Schwarzman Center, described Fure’s project as a “a pioneering installation by an astonishing artist and educator known for breaking musical boundaries and blurring the lines among aural, visual, and physical art disciplines.”

The installation/performance was commissioned by the Schwarzman Center and curated by YSC artist-in-residence Bryce Dessner.

While registration has reached full capacity for the live performances (individuals can register for a waiting list), members of the community are invited to attend a “gym mode” version of the project during the installation’s week-long run. View the full schedule. (Registration is not required for the “gym mode” events.)

View a listing of other boundary crossing artists coming to the Schwarzman Center during its fall/winter season.

In the latest edition of Humanitas, a column focused on the arts and humanities at Yale, a book that centers Native Americans in the country’s history earns national acclaim; a boundary-smashing artist brings a “sensory circuit workout” to campus; a Yale historian reflects on why his 1988 book about the rise and fall of global powers became one of the decade’s most influential books; and a Yale Ph.D. student (who also happens to be a bestselling novelist) earns a spot on a list of society’s future leaders. 

READ MORE at Yale News.