Figures in Air is a performance that transforms invisible gestures into sound.

Using analog synthesizers, artist Ivana Dama creates an atmospheric and ambient soundscape shaped by custom-made capacitive sensors developed in collaboration with the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, alongside Neil Gershenfeld and Quentin Bolsee. Sensitive to proximity and subtle movement, these instruments allow her to activate sound by appearing to touch nothing at all, composing in space, as if shaping air itself.

Echoes of Urgencies is a live performance built around the raw acoustic force of rotating siren disks, mechanical instruments that generate sound through rapid fluctuations in air pressure.

At the heart of Rashid Johnson’s installation work, Antoine’s Organ, 2016/2026, is the piano, which will be played by musicians at scheduled times throughout the exhibition. When activated through performance, the piano underscores music’s life-giving capacity to convey narrative and communal connection, particularly within Black communities.