IN THE RING - Preview
Gain the power of the ring in this RPG AI OPERA
IN THE RING is an experimental AI role-playing game inspired by Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner.
Director - Robin Coops
Digital storyteller, creative technologist - Eric Magnée
Social designer - Thyra Coenraad
📆 May 30th 2026
⏱️ 16:00h, Theatre hall, Batavierhuis
🎫 free tickets, only a reservation (link in bio)
Thematiek en muziek staan in zijn werk centraal 🎼 Robin Coops is regisseur en componist voor muziek gedreven en immersieve ervaringen.
Na drie jaar zit zijn ontwikkelingstraject binnen Station Noord er op. Terugblikkend deelt hij zijn ervaringen.
Blijf Robin volgen via @robin_coops
🎥 @tomtieman
#ontwikkeling #stationnoord #podiumkunsten
Exciting news,
Following our successful attendance at the IDFA DocLab Forum production market, we’ve received approval from the @stimuleringsfonds and are launching the development of GHOST TOWNS
GHOST TOWNS is an AR concert experience directed by @robin_coops and produced by UPscaleXR and co-produced by @coopsandcoofficial about abandoned ghost towns, and at the same time a meditative exploration of legacy, impermanence, and collective responsibility. What do we leave behind when we disappear?
By visiting the abandoned ghost town where forgotten communities exist as echoes, we explore which stories we keep alive and which we feed as ghosts. Audiences become ghosts themselves, plotting their collective legacy.
Director Robin Coops takes ‘immersants’ on a musical ritual consisting of voices of ghosts, on a journey through various ghost towns that emerge in space as AR objects. Visitors are invited to move through space and interact with each other and their surroundings.
Development team:
Robin Coops (director)
Floris Smit (producer)
@wzzzt (Nienke Huitenga - Coach)
@stefanelliotmaier (Stefan Maier) - Coach
#GhostTowns #AugmentedReality #ARart #ImmersiveArt #StimuleringsfondsCreatieveIndustrie #Interactive #ConcertExperience #IDFADocLab
What do we leave behind? As time passes, these questions grow louder. Ghost Towns is Robin’s upcoming augmented reality concert exploring transience, community, and legacy - inspired by his journey to Pyramiden, an abandoned Soviet ghost town near the North Pole.
In this special preview, Robin shares personal stories from his travels and performs excerpts from his haunting new composition. The full augmented reality performance will premiere in 2026.
Composition-performer: @robin_coops
Thanks to: @station_noord
Een exoplaneet is een planeet die zich buiten ons zonnestelsel bevindt. Waar de planeten binnen onze Melkweg ons nog te bekend voorkomen en onderhevig zijn aan eigenschappen die wij eeuwenlang aan hen hebben toegeschreven, bieden exoplaneten ons de mogelijkheid om buiten al het bekende te treden. Ze vormen daarmee het perfecte canvas om op bredere, menselijke thema’s te reflecteren.
Die benadering staat ook centraal in @robin_coops ’ nieuwe EP’s Enyo en Harmonia van zijn Exoplanets-serie. In een onconventionele mix van pop, elektronica en filmsoundtrack, in samenwerking met het @noordnederlandsorkest én ondersteund door twee AI-gegenereerde korte films, reflecteert hij op macht, chaos en controle. Lots to unpack, wij belden hem op voor hulp.
✏️ @jitzedv
📷 @robin_coops
This week we’re pitching GHOST TOWNS at the IDFA Doclab Forum which marks the official kick-off of the project.
An AR concert by director-composer Robin Coops, and a co-production by UPscaleXR, in which audiences can freely move through 3D-scanned ruins of the ghost town Pyramiden in Svalbard. A reflection on transience and human connectedness through live music and a spoken diary.
#idfadoclabforum #idfa2025 #ghosttowns #arexperience #immersivestorytelling #livemusic @idfadoclab
Coops&Co zoekt een zakelijk leider!
Ben jij een ondernemende organisator met gevoel voor kunst en technologie? Sluit je aan bij regisseur en componist Robin Coops en bouw mee aan vernieuwende muziekgedreven projecten, van opera’s in VR tot AR-concerten.
Start: In overleg vanaf 1 februari 2026, 1 dag per week (ZZP), uit te breiden
Locatie: Rotterdam / hybride
Reageren kan met je CV en korte motivatie in je eigen vorm.
[email protected]
Meer info: /coopsandco
Harmonia is out!
Harmonia is an album and AI image generated music film (made in 2023-2024) about a society that only sings to each other, and those who speak are sang back to society. (Inspired by George Orwells 1984).
The theme of Harmonia is all about manipulative systems, and stories which we tell each other and ourselves. With AI we create stories for better or worse, consciously but also unconsciously. So the story adds to the question on how we like to use AI in the future.
Find the links in the bio!
And a big thanks to @rasperjas for the final mix/master!
#aifilm #musicfilm #1984 #sagaofsage #exoplanets #robincoops
What happens when opera enters the club; and masculinity is put under the spotlight?
In May 2025, director/composer Robin Coops and ICK Dans Amsterdam invited audiences into the world of DONS: an immersive club presentation exploring masculinity, identity, and the shifting terrain of gender norms.
Set in a space where the lines between performer and spectator dissolve, DONS blends Mozart’s Don Giovanni with dark electronic soundscapes by Nicholas Thayer. Through dance, sound, and movement, the performance probes our unconscious roles, fears, and inherited behaviors as men and beyond.
This first exploration, presented at Space for Dance Art, asked: what does masculinity mean in 2025?
More to come...
#performanceart #contemporarydance #creation #presentation #choreography #theatre #immersivepresentation #art
📝CREDITS
Producer: Coops&Co
Co-producer: ICK Dans Amsterdam
Direction & Concept: Robin Coops
Choreography: Emio Greco | Pieter C. Scholten
Composer: Nicholas Thayer
Directing assistant: Alper Kaya Bayrakli
Dancers (video): ICK Ensemble - Hiroki Nunogaki, Payton St.John, Ricardo Vásquez Allen and ICK-Next: Alessio Cavazzana, Alissa Kouzmenkov, Leelou Teillet, Pau Bernaus Aparicio
Singers: Arnout Lems and David Whitwell
Technician: @idbnas - Israel Del Barco
video by @paulsixta
Grateful for the amazing time and research period we had at ICK for our new Dance Club Opera DONS! Thanks to all the great performers, artistic/productional/technical team and of course the audience itself! Hopefully we may welcome you all in 2026 for the full immersive experience! Pictures by @avgud
