Robin Coops
Robin Coops is a multi-disciplinary artist based in the Netherlands. He studied directing at the institute of
performative arts in Maastricht. He finished his Master’s at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The
Hague, in close collaboration with the composition department and graduated at the Master of Film program at the film academy in Amsterdam.
Interested in the tension between control and losing control, he explores how we are guided by or able to
manipulate political, technological and social systems and how we can move freely in the given
circumstances - including the involvement of new technology. In his work, he uses technology to research
the tension between the analog body and the digital machine. Genres as horror and tech-noir are used
as a device to emphasize these themes.
Robin Coops chooses to engage with the systems from within, questioning the structures that he’s a part
of. He doesn’t want to tackle all the existing categorizations but rather to invite himself and his audience
to reposition themselves and embrace the unknown. He sees this as taking an active position of jazzing frames.
His work puts different disciplines into a dialogue to create a single unified composition. The results are
films, performative installations, and audio-visual concerts. The works are often built on a musical
dramaturgy. Recently, he is also interested in trans-media works to search for the dialogue between the
different artworks and processes.
Robin Coops collaborates with companies including Silbersee, Oorkaan, and the VR Academy of the
Amsterdam University of the Arts. With his M31 Foundation, he produced and directed the opera Der
Kaiser von Atlantis (in collaboration with the Nederlandse Reisopera and the New European Ensemble)
and the website/performance Disconnect. He made several music videos for ensembles such as The
Ragazze Quartet and Stargaze Ensemble. With his bands Human 2.0 and Chaos Causality, he explores
how to integrate theatrical and visual elements into a rock concert.
