Ballerina-physicist who dances with robots comes to Romania at GoTech World event

GoTech World – the largest IT & Digital event in Central and Eastern Europe taking place on 3 and 4 November at Romexpo, Pavilion B1 – announces the presence as featured speaker of one of the most exciting figures of the scientific and artistic worlds, Dr. Merrit Moore.

Merritt, a world-class professional ballerina and physicist specializing in quantum physics, has become famous in recent years, particularly during the pandemic, for designing and choreographing industrial robots. These performance acts combining art and technology have been featured in the prestigious publications TIME, Financial Times, BBC and Vogue.

The ballerina who teaches robots to dance and performs with them in one-off performances graduated magna cum laude from Harvard’s School of Physics and with a PhD in atomic and laser physics from Oxford University. She also has an impressive career as a ballet dancer, having worked with renowned international ballet companies in Zurich, Boston, the UK and Norway.

Moore began dancing at the age of 13. When she was 15, she travelled to Viterbo (Italy), where she met Irina Rosca, who had been a dancer with the Bucharest National Opera Ballet. Merritt trained with the Romanian-born ballerina during her time in Italy.

Merritt Moore works with a team of artists and researchers to stage exciting performances integrating science and art, including romantic and moving duets with industrial robots.

Physicist artist explores the future of AI/machine learning, especially in dance, and investigates the incredible potential that artificial intelligence has to enhance human creativity.

Merritt inspires young women around the world to follow their dreams

Merritt was invited as a keynote speaker at the Forbes Women’s Summit in New York. She was also a featured panelist on the US Embassy’s Women in STEM panel in London.

One of the physical artist’s unique projects was presented at the Victoria & Albert (London), the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design, in 2017 as an installation called Slave/Master.

This foregrounded the exploration of ‘boundaries’ around human/robot interaction, reversing the traditional ‘fear’ depicted in sci-fi films of robots oppressing humans.

Also read: GoTech World: More than 70 IT&Digital companies participate in the region’s largest event of its kind

And Europe’s largest performing arts centre, the Barbican (London), hosted a project by Dr Merritt in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Darren Johnston called Zero Point. It ran in 2017 as an innovative, highly engaging sensory performance, inspired in equal measure by the sacred and the scientific. Zero Point combined digital imagery produced by motion sensing technology with meditative choreography.

Moore was also one of 12 candidates who underwent a rigorous selection process to become astronauts on a (2017) edition of the reality show broadcast on BBC Two,

In 2018, Merritt Moore received the Forbes 30 under 30 award (the 30 most successful young people under 30). She was also invited to America’s Got Talent 2021 and received a “YES” from all 4 judges.

Merritt Moore’s projects, unique and spectacular

Merritt is a speaker at events around the world, she has participated in TEDx Oxbridge (2013) and TEDx Oslo (2019), projects run at the LA Music Center, and in schools from Hong Kong to Germany.

During the pandemic (2020), she was invited to the Harvard ArtLab (an experimental workspace for artists, scholars and creative processes) and created a series of dances with an industrial robotic arm.

She is co-founder of the ngo SASters (Science&Art Sisters) through which she aims to create a community through which to run projects that support children and young people who dream of pursuing careers in both science and art.

In March 2021, Merritt Moore gives an interview to the Financial Times, in which he talks about the mix of science and art. “Sometimes it’s best if machines are left to their own devices. A good idea, the right music and a few weeks can turn hard steel into poetry. I’m very interested in combining science and art. Often when they meet, you get bad art and bad science. My main mission is: to follow up research and science from an artistic perspective, pushing it to the cutting edge of technology, can I make even better art?”.

She is currently an adjunct professor at New York University Abu Dhabi, where she teaches courses in robotics and dance.

Dr. Merritt Moore will be introduced to Romanian audiences as a featured speaker at GoTech World on Friday, November 4, 10:45 am on the Main Stage, presented by Orange Business Services. Go4it.ro is a media partner of the event.