Statement

Aether & Hemera are the ancient Greek god and goddess of brighter upper air and daylight. Aether is Claudio Benghi, the media architect; Hemera is Gloria Ronchi, the lighting artist.

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. This cross-disciplinary cooperation focuses on researching the sensory engagement power of an immaterial force like light and how collaborative participatory arts and design methods can influences our way of living in a variety of contexts, scaling from interiors to urban spaces.

The aim of Aether & Hemera’s artistic vision is to provoke memories, explore aesthetic interactions and to elicit feelings of connective human experiences in a required-to-participate audience.

Biography

Aether & Hemera works have been shown across the Uk and in Italy since 2006; recent exhibitions include: Kinetica Art Fair, London(2013); ArtsIT at Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2013); Blinc Digital Art Fest, Wales (2012); DLI Museum/Durham Art Gallery, England (2011); Wolverhampton Art Gallery, England (2010); Queen’s Hall Art Centre, Hexham, England (2010); MART 09 at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle Upon Tyne (2009); Cannon Hall Museum in Barnsley, England (2009); Lampugnani’s Castle in Subiate, Milan, Italy (2006).

Contact

Mobile: +44 (0)783 2377281
Mobile: +44 (0)788 2490525
E-mail: info@aether-hemera.com

Gloria graduated at Politecnico di Milano and later obtained a Master degree in Lighting Design at Brera’s Fine Art Academy in Milan. In 2008 she moved to England and obtained a Fellowship from the Institute of Digital Innovation, University of Teesside, for the design and creation of ‘Mood Chair’, a piece of interactive furniture that responds to its environment and people in it. She is a professional artist interested in combining light, digital technology and physical space to produce immersive and emotional headspaces.

Claudio trained as an architect at Politecnico di Milano, where he later became course coordinator and Lecturer of the course: “Communication design”, from 2000 to 2005. In 2007 he obtained his PhD, specializing in media architecture. He is now Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne. His aim is to explore emerging practices in cross-disciplinary fields to merge digital technologies & virtual spaces with tangible and physical spatial experiences.