Moon Ribas

Moon Ribas

Moon Ribas with pierced speedborg earrings.
Born (1985-05-24) 24 May 1985
Spain
Nationality
  • Spain
Education
Known for
Notable work
  • Waiting for Earthquakes
  • Walking Colours
  • The Speeds of Europe
Movement Cyborg art
Awards
  • 2010  Cre@tic Award 2010[1]
    Tecnocampus Mataro
  • 2010  Stage Creation Award[2]
    IMAC Mataro, Spain
  • 2001  Stage Creation Award
    IMAC Mataro, Spain

Moon Ribas (24 May 1985)[3] is a Catalan avant-garde artist and cyborg activist best known for developing and implanting an online seismic sensor in her elbow that allows her to feel earthquakes through vibrations.[4] Her choreography works are based on the exploration of new movements developed by the addition of new senses or sensory extensions to the dancer.[5] She is the co-founder of the Cyborg Foundation, an international organisation that encourages humans to become cyborgs and promotes cyborgism as an art movement.[6] Moon is also a co-founder at Cyborg Nest, a company aiming to help people become cyborgs and extend their senses.

Career and Works

Moon Ribas grew up in Mataró (Spain) and moved to England at the age of 18 where she studied experimental dance and graduated in choreography at Dartington College of Arts (England) and Movement Research at SNDO Theaterschool (Amsterdam).[7] During her studies she began to explore the possibilities of sensory extensions by applying technology to her body.[8]

Kaleidoscopic Vision

Moon's first sensory experiment was in 2007 when she created and wore a pair of kaleidoscopic glasses for three months.[9] The glasses only allowed her to see colour, no shape. The lack of shape perception increased not only her sense of colour discrimination but also her detection of movement. Any slight change of colour in her field of vision indicated that something had moved.[10] During the three-month period, Moon visited several cities in Europe and met people without ever seeing their faces.[11]

Speedborg

In 2008, Moon created a speedometer glove that allowed her to perceive the exact speed of any movement around her through vibrations on her hand. She wore the glove for several months and was able to sense different speeds depending on the vibration intervals.[12] She later transformed the glove into a pair of earrings that vibrated whenever there was presence around her.[13] Moon travelled around Europe with her speedborg earrings to find out what the average walking speed of citizens was in different cities. The Speeds of Europe is a video dance that shows the results of her research; Londoners and Stockholm citizens for example walk at a similar average speed of approximately 6.1kph whereas people in Rome and Oslo walk at an average speed of 4kph.[14]

By 2009, Moon was able to detect not only the exact speed of any person walking in front of her but also her own speed.[15] Knowing her own speed allowed her to create Green Lights a piece choreographed in relation to a set of 8 traffic lights: by learning the traffic light timings of Barcelona's Rambla de Catalunya avenue and by measuring the distance between each traffic light, she calculated the speed she had to walk to avoid red traffic lights and was able to get from one end to the other end of the avenue without stops.[16]

360° Perception

In 2010, Moon explored the possibilities of sensing movement behind her by turning the speedborg earrings around. The earrings allowed her to perceive if presence was behind her.[17] The earrings were developed further by students from La Salle (Barcelona) by adding 4 extra sensors in order to gain 360° perception of movement through vibrations around the head.[18]

Seismic Sense

In 2013, Moon developed a sensor that vibrates whenever there's an earthquake in the planet.[19] The sensor, which is permanently attached to her elbow, vibrates in different levels depending on the intensity of each earthquakes and is wirelessly connected to online seismographs, which means she can feel earthquakes from all over the world regardless of where she is.[20] Moon has been wearing the sensor permanently since March 2013 and has used her seismic sense to create dance pieces. Waiting for Earthquakes is a solo dance performance where the dancer stands still until an earthquake is felt. The choreography depends on the earthquakes felt during the duration of the performance and the intensity of the dancer's movements depend on the magnitude of each earthquake (which can be felt from 1.0 in the Richter Scale). If there are no earthquakes during the time of performance the dancer will not dance.[21] The piece was premiered on March 28, 2013 at Nau Ivanow, Barcelona.[22]

Cyborg Foundation

In 2010, Moon Ribas and Neil Harbisson created the Cyborg Foundation, an international organisation that encourages humans to become cyborgs.[23] The aims of the organisation are: to extend human senses and abilities by creating and applying cybernetic extension to the body, to promote cyborgism as an art movement, and to defend cyborg rights.[24] In 2010, the foundation won the Cre@tic Award, awarded by Tecnocampus Mataró. In 2012 a short film about the foundation was awarded at Sundance Film Festival.[25]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Martinez, Lluis "La Fundació Cyborg s'endú el primer premi dels Cre@tic", El Punt, 20 November 2010.
  2. ↑ "Temporada del Monumental", Capgròs, 27 August 2010.
  3. ↑ Registre El Maresme Número 503, Verano 1985
  4. ↑ Garcia, Gabriella "The woman who can feel every earthquake in the world", "Hopes&Fears", 17 de octubre 2015.
  5. ↑ Ploeger, Lieke. “Re:publica 2013: In/sideout”, Research in the National Library of the Netherlands, 22 May 2013.
  6. ↑ García, F.C. "Nace una fundación dedicada a convertir humanos en ciborgs", La Vanguardia, 1 de marzo de 2011.
  7. ↑ "Neil Harbisson, Moon Ribas" Revista Antic Teatre p.52-53, Diciembre 2010
  8. ↑ Angelis, Emma. “From Human to Cyborg”, FGMagizine, 27 February 2014.
  9. ↑ Bojka "Katalonci "čudnim zvukovima" odredili boju Zagreba" Lupiga, 29 de noviembre de 2007.
  10. ↑ Solon, Olivia. “The Cyborg Foundation: we urge you to become part-machine”, Wired, 30 October 2013.
  11. ↑ Marković, Stjepan. "Prvi sluzbeni covjek kiborg cuje trideset i sest boja" 24sata (Croatia) pp.12-13, 17 de diciembre de 2007
  12. ↑ Björg, Johanna "Human Cyborg Project Wins Grand Prize in Filmmaker Competition", Goodlifer, 28 January 2013
  13. ↑ Mügge, Marvin. “How to become a cyborg”, Weltenschummler, 8 May 2013.
  14. ↑ http://www.campus-party.eu/2012/special-Activities.html
  15. ↑ Pau, Merce. “Medio humano, medio maquina”, La Vanguardia, 28 February 2014.
  16. ↑ "Documentos TV", Televisión Española, 11 June 2012
  17. ↑ Oremus, Will. “Choose your own sixth sense”, Stuff.co.nz, 15 March 2013.
  18. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p014nk5w "What if... we could all become cyborgs?", BBC World Service, 25 February 2013
  19. ↑ Bandzimiera, Krystian. “Because Cyborgs Can Dream Too”, Mercedes-Benz mb!, 29 August 2013.
  20. ↑ Delatte, Marta. “Sentirse tecnología: la cibernética y el futuro de la sensualidad”, Playground, 20 January 2014.
  21. ↑ Davis, Sally. “Encounters with the Posthuman”, Nautilus, 29 April 2013.
  22. ↑ "Waiting for Earthquakes", Eventot, 28 March 2013
  23. ↑ Redacción "Una fundación se dedica a convertir humanos en ciborgs" El Comercio (Peru), 1 de marzo de 2011.
  24. ↑ Merchant, Brian. “What it’s like to be a cyborg, as explained by a cyborg”, Motherboard, 8 May 2013.
  25. ↑ Kilday, Gregg "Sundance 2013: Rafel Duran Torrent wins Focus Forward Filmmaker Competition Grand Jury Prize", Hollywood Reporter, 22 January 2013
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