‘Voyage’ by Aether & Hemera: A Journey into Imagination
Date uploaded: February 13, 2013
Start Date: Friday, December 14th 2012
End Date: Friday, February 15th 2013
Venue: Middle Dock, Canary Warf
Ticket info: FREE
Enlivening Middle Dock at Canary Wharf during the dark winter months, Voyage consists of three hundred floating 'paper boats' illuminated from within by coloured LED lights that come alive between around dusk and 2am, putting on a spectacular light show.
Aether & Hemera’s installation is designed to be an interactive experience. People can engage with the installation and impact the behaviour of the lights from their mobile phone.
The etymology of the word ‘voyage’ comes from Latin ’viāticum’, meaning ’provision for travelling’. Voyage aims to encourage viewers to make a transition from reality to imagination and to travel with absolute freedom to all the places we care to imagine, inviting us to re-live childhood memories and to embrace our freedom.
Creating an unexpected and unusual addition to Canary Wharf’s urban landscape, Voyage inspires the viewers to think creatively about the spaces around them, encouraging busy Londoners to stop and interact with both it and each other.
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. Based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 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.' Aether & Hemera’s practice finds inspiration at the intersection between art and computer science and in the past few years they have developed a particular interest in participatory forms, interactive environments and aesthetic data visualisation.
Voyage was commissioned for 'Winter Lights' as part of Canary Wharf Group’s public art programme of temporary and permanent visual arts.
Click here to visit Aether & Hemera's website.
Visit www.canarywharf.com/visitus/Public--Art/Events/Winter-Lights/
