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Merritt Moore is a quantum physicist with a Ph.D. in atomic and laser physics from Oxford University. She teaches creative robotics at New York University-Abu Dhabi. Moore is also a ballerina who has performed with world-class dance companies, including Zurich Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet and Boston Ballet.
In the intersection of the Venn diagram of Moore’s seemingly disparate professional pursuits is her passion for dancing with cobots, industrial robots that can work alongside humans in the same space.
“Sometimes creativity is just merging ideas in different ways.”
– Dr. Merritt Moore
She talked with KUST Review about merging art and science, turning her Ph.D. project into interpretive dance for a contest and a new ambition that surfaced after she appeared on a grueling BBC reality series.
LISTEN TO THE DEEP DIVE
| QUESTION: You’re a ballet dancer and a physicist. That’s an unusual mix. Can you talk about how that came about?
I started dancing at 12 or 13, but was told I would never make it professionally. So I went to Harvard to study physics. But when I was there I still had this love for dance and auditioned like crazy and took a year off to dance.
When I was working on my Ph.D. with Oxford I danced with the English National Ballet. Then the pandemic hit and I had a residency at Harvard University’s ArtLab.
My interest was piqued by AI in terms of how it could enhance our creativity: Sometimes creativity is just merging ideas in different ways. I couldn’t dance with humans, but robots couldn’t get COVID. A robot company generously lent me a robot.
I created more and more video content and was invited to perform live. It opened the doors to more questions and possibilities.
| Q: You’ve talked before about how physics helped you be a better dancer. Can you explain more?
Because I couldn’t be in the dance studio much because I was in physics classes all day, I really used the power of visualizing at night and would visualize doing the ballet moves. But at the same time I was understanding inertia and torque and friction and how your arms can slow you down or project motion.
Dance your Ph.D.
Dance Your Ph.D. since 2008 has encouraged scientists to explain their Ph.D. dissertations through interpretative dance. Read more›››
Winners get modest cash prizes and, naturally, bragging rights.
The 2020 overall winners were a trio of students from the University of Helsinki who used dance, rap and a wardrobe of white, short-sleeved button-down shirts to explain their research into computation study of molecular clusters. The 2022 and 2023 winners used dance to explain the electroporation of yeast cells and nanoMOFs.
The contest is sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science magazine and artificial intelligence company Primer.‹‹‹ Read less
(I was) visualizing the angle I’d need on take-off to get the highest leap. It’s using physics to maximize the least effort in a way. I could almost release and let physics do as much as possible. It also helped me get out of my head.
| Q: Has dance helped you be a better physicist?
Dance helped because I think there’s a huge importance in mind-body connection. Dance opened up so much passion.
For the Dance Your Ph.D. contest I created a dance called “EnTANGOed” (about the spontaneous parametric down-conversion equation). Everything became a metaphor. It made me think conceptually about the equation. (As scientists) we’re taught to memorize and regurgitate information. But it’s often missing something.
Einstein imagined himself as a photon or a light beam. So many breakthroughs happened outside the lab. It was a realization that there’s this unsaid pressure that a good physicist’s head is in the textbooks. But dance helps understand physically what’s going on.
| Q: You engage in youth outreach to encourage kids in STEM and founded the group Science-Art-Sisters to encourage girls to think about science in a creative way. How do students respond?
I’m always surprised by how many are so hungry for it. During the pandemic I created Zoom calls with SciArtists from around the world. I was expecting 40. There were about 300. It was a breath of fresh air. If I could squeeze in extra hours in my day I’d do it again.
| Q: You participated in the U.K. reality series “Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes?” and U.S. competition show “America’s Got Talent.” Which was more nerve-wracking, helicopter training or facing Simon Cowell?
The astronaut one was definitely more nerve-wracking in the sense that they take away your phone, they take away your computer. I had no idea what was coming up next. The unknown made it more nerve-wracking than anything else. (It was) all day every day.
The stuff they don’t show: Anytime we were waiting, we were having to do IQ tests, EQ tests. We were constantly miked up and filmed. It was really intense. It was the best experience of my life but also, yeah, really intense.
| Q: You have also talked about your hopes to become an astronaut and dance on the moon. How do you envision that would look?
I think that the weightlessness is the ethereal aspect of it. On those levels it would be so incredible. I would also love to explore what’s the new language up there. What’s the new language of dance? How do we create or optimize it?
Exoskeleton crew
While some robots are dancing with humans, others might help more humans dance again. Read more›››
While some robots are dancing with humans, others might help more humans dance again.
“These are really great problems and interesting challenges to be solved,” says Lakmal Seneviratne, KUCARS’ founding director.
Taking up those challenges: Irfan Hussain, a KU robotics professor researching variable stiffness actuators (VSA), which mimic human muscles that become stiff or soft depending on the task. For tasks that require accuracy, like throwing a ball or writing, the muscles become stiff, while for tasks that require safety, like physically interacting with humans, the muscles become soft, he says.
Hussain is working on a VSA device that uses bioinspired systems to create joints that can become stiff or soft as needed. It’s a robotic exoskeleton that people who have had a stroke could wear on their legs. The device, funded by Emirati investment fund Mubadala, could aid rehabilitation by mimicking the function of a knee joint, Hussain says. The same principle would go into building soft robotic hands that might help stroke patients safely grasp objects, Hussain adds. ‹‹‹ Read less
| Q: Did you want to become an astronaut before the BBC series, or did it jump-start a new ambition?
It definitely launched a new ambition. It’s not exactly a career that career fairs talk about.
| Q: You frequently dance with an industrial robot arm that you program. Are you interested in choreographing dances with other kinds of robots or is there something about the robot arm specifically that speaks to you artistically?
I’d love to explore so many different (kinds). The more robots the better. The more expertise the better. I’d like to dance with the massive ones. That would be super interesting. It’s just complicated to get access.
| Q: How do you envision AI and robotics will contribute to the arts in the future?
I think (robots are) an incredible tool that we can use for human expression. People get worried: Are you going to replace human dancers? No, that will never happen.
Painters got worried when we invented cameras 200 years ago. Painting is still valued, but photography is now an art. You can see a photographer’s work and you can see a human dignity to it. I think the same will happen with robot dancers.
ONE GIANT LEAP FOR ART
Physicist and ballerina Merritt Moore isn’t the only one with a desire to combine art and science on the moon. Read more›››
Semi-retired physicist and writer Samuel Peralta has been buying payload space on rockets to send coin-size Nanofiche loaded with music, books, visual art and more from more than 30,000 artists to the moon’s surface as lunar time capsules.
Canadian Heather Horton is one of the contributors to the project, called the Lunar Codex. “Every time I look at the moon, for the rest of my life, it will be different,” she tells the Guardian.
“I think what we have done here is the most global, the most diverse, the most expansive project,” Peralta says. “I sometimes think of the Lunar Codex as performance art,” Peralta adds. “This is the greatest performance art of my life!”‹‹‹ Read less
With AI, this is where it will get a little blurry and it depends how we legally start thinking about it. AI brings together a lot of peoples’ different work. It still needs human expertise to curate it well.
| Q: When you’re choreographing a dance with the robot arm, do you start with the human’s movements or the robot’s? What are the limiting factors?
I love that I can change the “formula” each time. Sometimes I start with human movement, sometimes I start with the robot’s movement.
Limiting factors are that the robot does not have arms or legs, so it’s always a puzzle to figure out what type of movements will “read.” The speed is sometimes an issue because if it is too fast, there is a risk it will fall over. There are limits to how much it can rotate (but I’m much less flexible than the robot).
| Q: What do you hope your audiences take away from your performances?
Audience members have mentioned that they never imagined a dance with a robot could be so moving. I always hope that audience members leave deeply moved and spirits lifted.
I want to show the blend of technology and human emotion, pushing the boundaries of what’s perceived as traditional art. My hope is that audiences leave not only moved by the beauty of the unexpected partnership but also inspired by the possibilities that arise when we merge diverse disciplines.