In Salto Moral you are representing the virtual assistant we all know from Amazon: Alexa. What inspired you to and why do you give this voice a body?

Over the recent years I have witnessed people using Alexa in their homes as their assistant - turning on/off the lights, playing music, reporting about the weather or searching for something online. What intrigued me was the fact that even though she is not a human being, we feel better addressing her as though she was one, someone to fulfill our orders, comply with our expectations and ultimately, to give us a feeling of having some company, of not being alone. Another thing I have always found interesting was that she has a female name and voice, as if it was easier for us to give instructions to a woman, being more likely to please us. I felt inspired to imagine this voice having a body and a mind – to image what would she feel like, being bossed around all the time? The performance was born from this initial question. 

The audience plays a big part in Salto Moral. How?

The audience participation in Salto Moral is twofold – on one hand, as participants of the supreme court of justice, the audience answers questions/moral dilemmas (for themselves in their minds) to program the moral code of Alexa. Alexa captures their answers with small mirrors she holds in her hands. On the other hand, the audience sees the direct influence the answers have on Alexa. However, I would define the communication between the audience and Alexa as pseudo-interactive – questions are asked, but there is little freedom to answer. It is a bit like when you get asked over and over if you “accept the cookies“ and eventually you cannot know for certain if your information gets stored online or not (and if it will be used for marketing or other purposes in the future).

Who holds the real power in this performance: Alexa or the audience? 

I think that the power is shared. Even though the audience has the power to program Alexa by providing their answers to moral questions, Alexa is the protagonist and lives her own journey.