Moon Ribas

This talk goes into detail about the projects of Moon Ribas, her philosophy as a cyborg artist and the process that drove her to cofound the Cyborg Foundation. Ribas has a sensory extension on her arm that allows her to feel earthquakes
through small vibrations, she applies this new sense to her artistic work. Her talk is about the union between our species and technology, the extension of the human senses through cybernetics, using the internet as a sense and cyborg art.
The talk will also explore how becoming a cyborg will enhance our relationship with animals, nature and space.

Waiting for Earthquakes is a dance piece based on the interaction between the movement of the earth and Moon Ribas. Moon has a sensor attached to her arm that allows her to feel earthquakes in real time from anywhere in the
planet. During the piece Moon waits for an earthquake to take place, and when this happens she moves according to the intensity of the earthquake (she can feel earthquakes as small as 1 in the Richter scale). In general there are small earthquakes every 6-12 minutes, if there are no earthquakes during the time of the performance there will be no dance. The piece is a duet, where the planet dictates the tempo and the intensity, and Moon interprets it. The piece makes the audience feel a direct connection to the planet. Waiting for Earthquakes is a piece that doesn’t have a beginning or an ending, as it’s based in real time facts, it could last 10 minutes, 10 hours or 10 days. The performance space is usually built in a way where the audience can enter and leave whenever they want, and where they can move and sit freely in the space. The performance should be treated as a living
installation or sculpture.

Seismic percussion is a drum solo performance where the rhythm of the piece is dictated by the rhythm of the tectonic plates. It’s a piece that transposes the seismic activity that occurs in our planet into sound, into a musical composition that allows the audience to connect with the heartbeat of the
planet, earthquakes. This piece can be performed in two ways. One is based on real time earthquakes so whenever there’s an earthquake as small as 1 in the Richter scale during the performance, Moon will play the drum according to the intensity of the earthquake taking place at that moment. So, if there are no earthquakes there will be no sound. The piece can also be performed by playing the earthquakes that have already happened in a specific place. Moon creates a score based on all the earthquakes that have taken place on a specific area (Mexico, Alaska, Greece,…) for an specific period of time (50 or 100 years), all the data collected is then
transformed into a composition that is played in 10min. The act is accompanied with a projection that keeps showing the years Moon is playing on the drums. Seismic percussion is a performance where Earth becomes the composer of the piece.