Gray Area and DJ Dials Present:
Max Cooper On Being 3D/AV Live — 8/28
Max Cooper brings his On Being North American Tour to Gray Area for two nights of stunning live A/V electronic music.
Gray Area and DJ Dials Present:
Max Cooper On Being 3D/AV Live
Thursday, August 28, 2025
Doors: 9:30PM
21+
Standing performance
View our FAQ page for more info, or contact us at [email protected] with any accommodation requests.
About On Being
Acclaimed musician, audio-visual artist, sound designer and creative Max Cooper releases
latest masterwork album project, On Being.
Following Unspoken Words in 2022 and released on his own Mesh platform, the new
album is the latest in a vast portfolio of work and an impressive back catalogue.
Powerful works of art have traditionally sprung from some source deep within an artist and, if
they strike the right tone, resonate with an audience to leave a lasting mark. But what if that
equation were reversed: what if an artist were to draw their inspiration from deep within their audience, and use that to reflect those ideas, emotions, hopes, fears, pains and aspirations
back to us?
Over a two-year journey, the audio-visual artist and electronic innovator Max Cooper has
inverted the creative process by collecting hundreds of anonymous quotes, posing a deep
but open question, "What would you like to express which you cannot in everyday life?"
The goal: to understand what it is like to be human right now.
The result: his incredible new album On Being
With On Being, Cooper aimed to probe under the synthetic surface of social media to "create
a snapshot of our minds these days" as he puts it, by asking people to share anonymously
what they dare not ever say publicly. The result is an emotionally raw and shockingly honest
kaleidoscope of confessions, ranging from suicide contemplations to miserable marriages to
simple pure loneliness, contrasting with hundreds of anonymous confessions of love and
longing.
involves a one-way communication of feelings and ideas that I later find out whether they
resonate with others or not," says Cooper.
"With this I could start instead with people's thoughts and feelings, what resonates for them,
and make my own interpretations of those musically and visually, and then send those back
out to everyone. It's more of a collaborative approach to making an album, and more
intense."
Grief, hope, regret, joy, hurt, and love form the basis for each track, taking Cooper's
ever-evolving creative process in a completely new direction - with profoundly intense
results.
realised the impact that other people's words on being would have on me until I started
reading the database of thoughts," Cooper says.
"It was like finding a secret window into everyone's minds, and discovering amongst the
chaos, pleasure and pain, the experiences that we all share at different times of our lives,
and overwhelming emotions and connections that call out to be explored."
Despite what we see in the maelstrom of rage in the echo chambers of society ‘On Being’
reveals that humans still have an innate need to trust one another and express communal
generosity - more easily done from the safety of an anonymous portal.
what everyone had to say later in the record,"
The result is a unique work of art that demonstrates unequivocally not only the power of
using music without words to express emotions, but the power of words to express what
seemed to be inexpressible.
On Being will continue to evolve as Cooper gathers more confessions to feed into this
ecosystem of emotions and to create a new range of art projects and other accompanying
works which hopefully will speak truthfully to humanity today - and of who we are and who
we can become.
Max Cooper founded Mesh in 2016 as the platform to explore the intersection of music,
science, and art.
About the Artist
Max Cooper
Max Cooper is an electronic composer, multi-disciplinary artist, music label founder and former scientist who has carved out a unique space in music and visual art.
He holds a PhD in computational biology at the same time as being the first contemporary electronic musician to perform at the ancient Acropolis theatre in Athens and one of the first clutch of musicians to produce in Dolby Atmos.
Cooper has enquired for over 15 years through music, collaborations, and his label Mesh, to explore the intersections between the arts and sciences with installations, performances, immersive experiences, online media, music videos and live events. Anchored throughout is his emotive approach, connecting how ideas and forms feel, in a manner accessible to us all.
As an artist synonymous with the evolution of club culture, Cooper honed his craft as a DJ with a 10-year residency at legendary Midlands techno event Firefly where he formed a foundational relationship with Architecture Social Club, with whom he still collaborates on extravagant immersive installations.
"I want to encourage the acceptance of electronic music as an art form like any other. Bringing electronic music and abstract audio-visual projects into concert halls, museums and galleries is liberating - the art world opens up doors to communicate in ways that aren’t possible elsewhere."
Cooper's newest release On Being, an exploration of the "desperate experience of being human", is his tenth studio album. Crafted over two years, gathering thousands of anonymous quotes to use as creative fuel, this is Cooper's first attempt to use the experiences of his audience as inspiration for his music - rather than attempting to influence his audience's experiences with his music. "I hadn't realised the impact that other people's words would have on me."
Pivoting from computational biology to electronic music might not seem like the most natural career transition, but for Cooper the commonalities are obvious:
"In both fields, you're in a sense, free. Free from the limits of living systems, free from the limits of corporeal sound. The only constraints are in your mind."
Partner
DJ Dials
Noah Cunningham is a talented DJ, concert promoter, editor, animator, cinematographer, and video artist. Noah spins music under the name DJ Dials, and for the last 14 years he’s been mixing songs from genres such as dubstep, ‘90s rap and throwback electronic, playing alongside well-known artists Thom Yorke, The Roots, SBTRKT and several others.
Become a Gray Area Member
As a Gray Area Member you get special access to events, behind-the-scenes content and more. Gray Area is a dedicated family of supporters who believe in the power of creative action to catalyze social transformation. Join as a member today to provide sustaining support for our globally unique arts, education, research, and incubation programs.
