As a long time fan of Max Cooper’s stunning visual (and audio) work, I was recently blown away by his live 3D AV performance at the new Melbourne Now or Never festival at Melbourne Exhibition Building (great venue for such a gig and sound quality was superb). The highlight for me was his Symphony in Acid track – complete with visuals from the generative and interactive project of the same name (a collaboration with creative coding artist Ksawery Kirklewski). Whilst the track plays on screen, you can use different keyboard strokes to influence the output. It becomes a tool for expression which gives enormous pleasure to use. There is also a “selfie” mode where your monitor camera can be used to effect the output. The output itself passes through a series of predefined sequences, unique with each viewing (it’s generative). Words were contributed by the general public, relating to the underlying concept behind the Unspoken Words album – exploring the difficulties of communicating with words. Brilliant stuff.