Exoplanets by Coops & Co

Exoplanets is a series of albums and concerts, presented by Sage, the alter-ego of creator Robin Coops. As a traveling guide, Sage shares stories about various planets through music, each with their own utopia or dystopia. In his music, Robin explores techniques such as VR, AR and AI, and through Sage’s travels questions what these technologies mean for our own world.

In this concert we visit two planets: HARMONIA and VESTIGIA AETERNA.

HARMONIA
On a planet where singing is the only language, speaking becomes the most dangerous thing you can do.

HARMONIA is an augmented reality concert about a utopian town where the inhabitants communicate exclusively through singing. When a teacher receives notes that cast doubt on the sacred texts of the ‘Songbook’, he really starts to listen and speak, with the risk that the singing police will bring him back into line. HARMONIA is a free, musical adaptation of Orwell’s 1984, about a world in which lies count as truth and AI companies set themselves up as new creators.

For the Laurenskerk, the original music film (2023) will be reworked into a live AR experience with organ, vocals and percussion.

VESTIGIA AETERNA
On a planet where nothing lives anymore, a song is the only thing that never stops.
On Vestigia, Sage finds only sand and silence: fossil traces of a vanished world. Through the headset, the audience zooms in further and further, until fragments reminiscent of people emerge among the remains. An endlessly playing virtual psalter frames this journey, like a requiem without end. Petra van Berkum created spatial drawings in VR specifically for this composition. For this planet, the newly developed tool VJAR is being used for the first time.

VJAR
Coops & Co, together with UPscaleXR and DASHXR, is developing the tool VJAR, which allows Robin to VJ live for the first time, not on a screen, but directly in the audience’s AR headsets. VJAR is used for the first time within Exoplanets and opens the door to live VJs in headsets for a variety of makers and genres.

The composition HARMONIA deliberately uses AI-generated images. That choice of form is itself a commentary on the content. Do you have any questions about this? Then read Robin  Coops’ artistic explanation on his website, or speak to him afterwards.

Credits
Concept, animations, composition: Robin Coops
Songg, synths: Sage (aka. Robin Coops)
Organ: Matthijs van der Wilt
Percussion: Jonathan Bonny
VR drawings: Petra van Berkum 
Technics: Marcel Brand
Costume:  Martijn Kramp
Producer: Coops & Co
AR-guidance: UPscaleXR
AR-technology: DASHXR

With thanks to: Dioraphte, IFFR, Gemeente Rotterdam and Laurenskerk

Exoplanets is part of the Lightroom Expanded program, a collaboration between UPscaleXR, International Film Festival Rotterdam, and DASHXR.