By Babz Rawls Ivy, Editor-in-chief, The Inner-City News and Host/Producer of LoveBabz LoveTALK, 103.5 WNHH radio
Highly-praised for her unique work, Ash Fure is coming to New Haven this weekend and bringing a week-long interactive art installation with her, “ANIMAL: A Listening Gym.”
The installation is commissioned by Yale Schwarzman Center (YSC) and is built in collaboration with stock-a-studio. It opens to the public from Oct. 21-28, and marks the YSC’s first week-long installation.
“ANIMAL: A Listening Gym” is both an installation and a live performance. The installation is set up with sonic machines like a circuit of gym equipment. Visitors can connect with sound in the “listening gym” and listen to the creative musical sounds of Fure’s “ANIMAL” performance.
Fure’s early career found her working with traditional music such as string quartets and orchestras. She explained that she decided to experiment with sound and build her own instruments, creating a world of music that is outside the typical format.
“There’s not really a single icon of that music in this space,” Fure shared. “It’s fully alternate reality.”
Fure holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Harvard University and is an associate professor of music at Dartmouth College. Her educational journey led her to test the limits of what sound can do. She created intricate and large instruments that she refers to as “sound-making machines.”
“The phenomena (the sound machines) produce are quite accessible in the sense that you don’t have to have studied Bach for 15 years to be able to perform with these instruments,” Fure said.
Fure delved into the meaning behind “ANIMAL,” in this project. Her work focuses on the sensory capabilities humans have. She wants listeners to reflect and connect with the “animalistic” qualities within their human senses.
“Turning toward our sensory capacities feels very pressing right now. That’s where the work you see that I’ll be performing is a highly physical engagement,” Fure said, discussing how in a world where Artificial Intelligence is growing rapidly, she and many others are reflecting on what it means to be human. As a result, “ANIMAL: A Listening Gym” was born.
“I think that (AI) can crack some light into some rigid senses of what we are and why we are superior, that could really be productive in turning us back toward a more relational frame and turning us back toward a sense of our shared aliveness,” Fure expressed.
Ash Fure was guest on LoveBabz LoveTALK Monday 10/16/2023 https://www.facebook.com/wnhhradio/videos/1380838492854087/?mibextid=YxdKMJ