AETHER

Aether is a light field installation developed with musician Max Cooper. It is a charged void of potential energy. A zone of emergence. A woven grid of glowing dendrites that illuminate to give form to feeling. A spatial musical translation. As a dancer may improvise with their bodies, sound is interpreted as effervescent patterns and rhythmic movements in an attempt to embody its meaning visually. Hypnotic waves and phosphorescent fragments attempt to reach beyond the conscious and stir something deep within.

The objective of our collaboration was to see whether we could complement the energy and narrative of the music spatially. We wanted to create a piece that would have a sensory cathartic impact on the audience whilst also being tourable as a musical instrument in and of itself.

Aether had its UK debut at Lumiere London 2018. The installation was visited by half a million people over four nights. It has since toured venues internationally.

http://aether.live Aether is a new spatial audio-visual collaboration between musician Max Cooper and architects Satyajit Das and Regan Appleton. It plays on the beauty of fundamental natural forms - waves, surfaces, symmetries and surreal landscapes, as the building blocks and underlying structure of the world around us - a modern interpretation of the luminiferous aether. Aether comprises a 3-dimensional lattice of light, mapped to a live immersive audio experience. The audience can walk around, underneath and fully explore the space as the light-field warps around them, playing on the connection between spatial and sonic structures, and our intrinsic emotional connection to fundamental natural form. This is all live footage, no CGI was used. CREDITS MUSIC: MAX COOPER DESIGNERS: ARCHITECTURE SOCIAL CLUB + REGAN APPLETON VISUAL CONTENT DESIGN: MAX COOPER + SATYAJIT DAS ENGINEER + ANIMATOR: DAVID GARDENER VIDEO EDITOR: JENNIFER TIVIDAD COLOURIST: TOBY TOMKINS DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID GARDENER DIRECTOR: SATYAJIT DAS LASERS PROVIDED BY LASER HIRE LONDON: DAL BADIAL + KAYTEN TEBBS + JAMIE THOMAS CONSTRUCTION TEAM: ROB WALKER, ADAM KALOPSIDIOTIS, JOHN HARKNESS, BEN SLATER, SHARMISTHA DAS, KIM HAU, WILL HARDING-NEWMAN, BETHAN KAY, SHEHNAAZ KHAN, MEGAN CHARNLEY, ALEX WATSON, SIMON BRAUNSTEIN, JASON MAK, ALISON SCHPOT, JESSII ROSE, STEVE BRITTON Bookings - marcus@lb-agency.net Management - james@thewildseeds.com Laser control software by Pangolin www.architecturesocialclub.co.uk www.maxcooper.net

The Team

Design & Engineering Satyajit Das, David Gardener & Regan Appleton

Music Max Cooper

Visual Content Direction Max Cooper, Satyajit Das & David Gardener

Producer Jennifer Sin

Lasers provided by AC Lasers

Transportation by Bolliger International

Video Editor Jennifer Tividad

Director Satyajit Das

Cinematographer Beatriz Delgado Mena

Installation Manufacturing Team

Alfie Di Trolio, Sara Doucette, Michael Douglas, Rebecca Fox, David Gardener, James Jowler, Chris Kaye, Aysun Sapaz, Gergely Soltész, Lewis Zanetti

Big thanks to the Lumiere London & Artichoke team.

AETHER

The Team

PENTATONIC

ARTHUR