Ryan Moritz

Ryan Moritz is an artist and designer based in New York. He has held residencies at Millay Arts and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and was commissioned by the New York City Audubon Society to write and perform an opera about birds. He has released one musical album, and has exhibited or screened work at the SF Urban Film Festival, AUP Film Festival, 1.5 Rooms, among other venues.

Magicicada

For the LMCC Arts Center Residency, this project reimagines the lifecycle of the Magicicada septendecim—the periodical cicada which emerged in the New York region in the spring of 2021 after living 17 years underground—into a series of new and invented affiliations. By documenting specimens, recording their choruses, and exploring their relationships to other species, I seek to create a dynamic representation of the cicada to highlight and dramatize the critical issues facing these insects and the natural world at large.

The installation includes a wall print, 3d-printed clock, and video and sound piece (composed in 17/8 time with prime number melodic intervals).

Multimedia Installation

Exhibited
LMCC’s Arts Center on Governors Island
August 21, 2021
(photos)

Observation Hide

AI: Nature

An investigation of artificial intelligence and nature.

Invited Talk
AI Now Institute (New York, NY)
February 27, 2020

Important Bird Opera

Important Bird Opera (music and film by Ryan Moritz with a libretto by Anjuli Raza Kolb) is an experimental opera in three acts about birds, migration, climate crisis, and rewilding. The piece began as an experiment in nature photography, sound documentary, and the twentieth-century tone poem. Built on an original score, migration footage, and recorded birdsong from across the hemisphere, Important Bird Opera evolved as we worked into a more argumentative and political piece, one that follows climate writer Alan Weisman’s prompt to imagine—perhaps even dream—of a world without us. 

The opera was supported by the New York City Audubon Society, who provided Ryan studio space on Governors Island to develop a work of art commenting on the importance of bird and biodiversity to ecological and planetary health. The title of the piece, a nod to the international network of Important Bird Areas, also registers the artists’ ongoing activist and volunteer work with specific bird conservation efforts. The poetic work by Anjuli moves between registers, touching on contemporary ecological activism and the impacts of climate change both large and small on bird populations while also revisiting the conceit of 10th century Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar’s political epic The Conference of the Birds. The libretto, Unflocked Heart, tells the story of a diverse avian community riven by doubt and hesitation and brought together unexpectedly in hope.

Rendering images and footage of birds in stunning motion and sometimes humorous repose, the opera explores the relationship between care, romantic love, and love of the planet; avian population decline; climatological and built-environment challenges to traditional migratory patterns; and the possibility of reforestation and ecological remedy undertaken by non-human consciousnesses.  

Important Bird Opera is built of musical, filmic, and poetic components, but it is ultimately a community event whose fullest manifestation brings together the performance, the audience, and the sonic and visual contingencies of environment. The debut performance took place on August 24, 2019 in Nolan Park on Governors Island in New York City, where Ryan performed live accompaniments to the opera, amidst fireflies, roosting birds, and humming insects.

Video
Color, sound
Canada, Mexico, United States
38 min 25 sec
2019

Music
Important Bird Opera

Libretto
Unflocked Heart by Anjuli Raza Kolb

Performance and Screening
Nolan Park House #17, Governors Island
August 24, 2019
(photos)

Geographic Visualizations
Courtesy of NASA

Program and Synopsis
Design by Martin Schapiro

In media
Scientific Musicals, Labocine, January 2023 Issue
Meet the Birder: Ryan Moritz, Bird Collective
Bird Sh*t podcast Episode 21
The Urban Audubon Volume XL No. 4