Aether & Hemera
Designer/Maker

Aether & Hemera are the ancient Greek god and goddess of brighter upper air and daylight. Aether is Claudio, the new media architect; Hemera is Gloria, the lighting artist. Aether & Hemera is interdisciplinary collaboration to research the aesthetic challenges of light and its power to trigger emotions and response, creating a sense of identity or setting a mood.

Our installations, predominantly site specific, explore light’s creative and artistic potential to express ideas, emotions and surprising encounters; we perceive colours and light as an epiphany of possible beauty, a levity amplifier and a metamorphosis tool transforming spaces.

We are interested in researching the ways in which glass, filters, plastics and other absorbing or reflecting materials can effectively be employed along with emerging or established lighting technologies such as LED’s, UV lamps, fibre optics and projections.

We participate in Public Art for reciprocal enrichment: on one side we hope to provide engaging and poetic artworks while on the other partnerships with communities, artists and other professionals have become an important part of our creative process; their knowledge, ideas and values inspire and improve our practice.

Hemera, Gloria Ronchi, graduated at Politecnico di Milano and later obtained a Master degree in Lighting Design at Brera’s Fine Art Academy in Milan. She has been working for several years in collaboration with architects and planners to produce concepts and detailed lighting projects for architectures and landscapes. Thanks to this experience she knows very well that light is a powerful tool which triggers emotions and response, creating a sense of identity or setting a mood.

Aether, Claudio Benghi, trained as an architect at Politecnico di Milano, where he later obtained his PhD. He specialized in new media communication and interaction design. His aim is to explore emerging practices in cross-disciplinary fields to merge digital technologies & virtual spaces with tangible and physical spatial experiences.

Q&A's

Describe your creative practice in 20 single words.

Aether & Hemera create reactive spaces that cross the borders of architecture, interaction design and site-specific installation art.

Their projects range from large-scale installations and public art to interactive videos and product design.

Describe your influences using 30 single words or short phrases.

Aether & Hemera is an interdisciplinary collaboration to research the aesthetic challenges of light and its power to trigger emotions and response, creating a sense of identity or setting a mood.

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