As a Ceremony Shines a Light on the Aesthetics of Respect
True friendship is hard to find. However, Alessia Pegorin and Antonia Insunza had a stroke of luck when they crossed paths. What started as a collegial acquaintance quickly transformed into an illuminating friendship and As a Ceremony; a light design studio founded out of love, respect and appreciation for the process, all beings, darkness, light, and one another.
Words by Michelle Torres
Now facing the greatest environmental crisis of our time, it is more important than ever that designers improve the content of experience in a bid to awaken people to the ubiquitous complexities and ecological labour of everyday objects. Recognition and a deeper understanding of the magnitude of these processes reignite our connectivity to the systems that envelop us and encourage reformative social and cultural change.
As their name implies, As a Ceremony believes there is a sacredness to sculpting objects that become part of our daily lives. Their transversal approach means they pull inspiration from all corners; never drawing lines between what is an acceptable practice in life and work, instead one informs the other, and they use this as their barometer. When it comes to their designs, Antonia and Alessia have no strict formula. Their compassionate virtue aesthetics of respect paves the path in shaping bespoke solutions and sets necessary ecological boundaries for their projects and products. In one of their most inspiring works, Message in a Driver, cables, cooling devices, and even power supplies, typically hidden, go exposed. These choices render a socio-political statement, alerting people to the legitimacy of light which many of us take for granted, yet which makes life as we know it liveable.
It was this and their insights surrounding the pertinent e-waste crisis that compelled me to share their journey. As a Ceremony opens up pathways for empathy and ingenuity and brings forth a response that breaks free from convention and defies the system. I am sure that anyone who has the pleasure of meeting Antonia and Alessia will, like me, feel refreshed by their spirit and feel fortunate to be in the presence of such honesty, love, poise and integrity.
Michelle: You both have such a natural rapport with one another. Could you tell us about your backgrounds and how you met?
Antonia: Shortly after graduating architecture in Chile, I started to feel attracted to light as an immaterial part of the architecture. Light is atmospheric and scientific at the same time. It can bring you to the most emotional places and also help with physical wellbeing. I love the fact that it is matter and waves – such a strong, powerful phenomenon creates the atmosphere, produces space and defines the way we humans feel in a place. It is temperature, colours, darkness, shadows, volumes, size, feelings.
After completing my masters in Architectural Lighting design in Wismar, Germany, I started to work at Studio Dinnebier, a lighting design office in Berlin. After some years Alessia joined the office. We worked together intensively for the next three years and we recognised that we shared a way of approaching life and design. It was like the perfect match and eventually, we decided to jump into this adventure together. I have absolute trust, respect and admiration for her.
Alessia: I studied Architecture in Venice and, right after my graduation, I moved to Berlin as I always wanted to live abroad. For the first years I worked in architectural offices and, little by little, I realised my interest grew closer to objects. There is something primordial, sensual, magical and almost sacred in sculpturing objects that are part of our everyday life. So I decided to apply for interior and industrial designer positions.
I was lucky enough to get a product designer position at Jan Dinnebier’s office and my attraction to light started in those years, while I was developing a lighting fixture for him. I had never thought my enthusiasm for the design of objects would lead me to where I am today. Like Antonia mentioned, this was where we met. It was like a blessing. We are so different yet so similar at the same time. We share core values, and I think this is the key to the success of our beautiful friendship and working relationship. What happened between us is something extraordinary; it does not occur every day in your life.
Could you share some insights into how As a Ceremony started? What is the meaning behind the name?
Our work no longer reflected what we had grown to believe and understand about design concerning the world. This was the beginning of many conversations over Rosé in a bar on Alte Schönhauser Straße where we would discuss and exchange our views about light, space and design without any boundaries.
For us, work is not so detached from our lives. We live our lives as consciously and responsibly as possible – transversally. So we came to the conclusion that our name should be kind of a surname that defines the way we do things and not what we do. From this came “as a ceremony”. A ceremony can be collective, individual, can be long or short, can be quiet or noisy – it doesn’t matter. In the end, it is always with love, with care and with full commitment, concentration and involvement.
Some of your designs expose the inner components of the light, the bulb, wires etc. Can you talk about your brand philosophy and design aesthetics? How do you instil it in the projects that you approach?
There is no real formula for our work as every project is different, but we can say that our aesthetic is an aesthetic of respect. In design and life often things are predominately appreciated by their result, ignoring the processor components that have vital functions. So we often expose luminaire cables, cooling devices and even power supplies that are usually covered out of respect, as without them the luminaire would not even exist. We believe design is political and so we recognise their beauty, both in terms of aesthetics and functionality. That’s our way of saluting design. Why should we hide them?
What are some projects you’re currently working on?
We are developing a free-standing lighting fixture with a new technology. We’ve designed a new cooling device, together with European Thermodynamics in the UK. We are still in the process of testing and prototyping, and we can’t wait to share it! Besides that, we have been asked to light up some gigantic white concrete sculptures designed by the collective artists SUPERFLEX for a hospital park in Copenhagen. This is quite a fun project to work on and perfect for us in that we are both vegans, and the sculptures are all fruits and veggies! We are also developing architectural lighting solutions for an office building in Hamburg and just finished the interior lighting design for a loft in Berlin.
We are continually working on a research project called Some Precious Project, where we try to tackle our most significant paradox: being planners and producers of projects and products that create waste and therefore affect our planet significantly.
And last year, we started designing a time-light as a reminder that we are not alone on this planet, that we are part of a chain and that we need to protect it. We are not in this alone is an indoor time-light that uses bioluminescence as a light source. With this project, we attempt to approach our planet by being actively and respectfully part of it. This special lamp and light source proposes an analogical escape from electricity and the digital world. It is a reminder that life on-demand, as we know it, is no longer sustainable and that a change must come. We are excited as we have been awarded by the Worth Partnership Project to develop it!
Like with many things, people tend to buy electronics without thinking of the big picture such as energy use, maintenance, and disposal. With your specific focus, can you paint us a picture of the energy crisis and e-waste problem, and the current impacts it is having on nature and the people that it is affecting most?
We live in a throw-away society, and every year we are throwing away literally tons of electronics because we don’t know how to fix them or because of our ravenous appetite for newness. The discarded equipment such as lighting bulbs, phones, laptops and other appliances contain toxic chemical substances that need to be recycled under certain conditions and, if not done so, can cause serious health and environmental risks. The global e-waste monitor estimates that in 2019 the world generated circa 50 mt (million metric tonnes) of e-waste! This is a huge problem both environmentally and economically, and only 20% of the e-waste that we generate is documented to be collected and properly recycled, while a very tiny percentage of the remaining 80% is thrown into the residual waste. The rest is dumped, illegally traded and recycled under poor conditions.
There is a documentary called Welcome To Sodom (Florian Weigensamer, Christian Krönes, Germany 2018) that reveals what happens to the electronics that are illegally traded in the outskirts of Accra. It is heartbreaking to see how people there make a living and are putting their lives at risk by processing the e-waste to collect the metals or by burning the wires to recover the copper. Electronics contain precious and rare earth metals that are only present in limited quantities on our planet, which is why by the end of our century the largest metal reserves will no longer be underground but above ground in the form of gold bars and electronic devices. So there is also a large economic component that we should take into consideration as we rapidly empty out our natural reserves and underground mines.
Project: Message in a Driver – As a Ceremony, photo by Alexander Kilian
Many people don’t know that electronic components and LED light sources are very difficult to recycle and that some of the metals used to produce LED chips and circuits are precious rare earth metals, only present in limited quantities on our planet. Can you tell us more about this?
LED is labelled as a sustainable light source and complies with the EU eco-design regulations because of their longevity and high-efficiency. We focus on LED technology, as it is the main lighting technology that has recently been forecasted to take over residential and industrial lighting in 2020. LED technology has rapidly developed, and is improving and offers a smart and personalised approach to lighting solutions (changing colour, dimmable, etc.). Because of their small size and the multiple shapes, LED offers a lot of freedom for designers. Our question is: what happens when they are no longer used? Where do they go?
Some of the elements used to produce LEDs are precious, technological and rare earth metals such as gold, silver, titanium, gallium, and tin, among others. On the other hand, in the electrical cables, we find pure copper and large quantities of aluminium are used to shape cooling devices. The global e-waste monitor reports that the total value of all raw materials present in e-waste is estimated at approximately 55 billion euros, which is more than the GDP of most countries in the world. So, a fortune is buried in the e-waste fills, but not all of it can be recycled. For instance, copper and aluminium can be easily isolated, extracted and therefore adequately recycled. On the other hand, the metals contained in the LEDs are so highly integrated into the chip and so far it is impossible to extract and therefore recycle them. Huge steps have been achieved in the recycling process of electronics but there is still much work to be done.
As designers, you are responsible for producing something tangible and yet another product is put out into the world. Do you feel conflicted by some of the choices that you have to make regarding sustainability and e-waste? How are you tackling these problems?
Yes, we totally do feel conflicted. We have faced hard times in which we felt trapped in this paradox that you described. In the beginning, we felt stuck either way we were turning. We were pretty frustrated about it until we realised that as designers we have the opportunity to deliver a powerful message and trigger awareness among people. We all know that production-wise we live in a world where quantities matter. The market, as it is, tends to penalise small producers: the more you produce, the less the production costs and – as a consequence – the higher your revenue. This approach is violently unsustainable and bad for our planet, it encourages a consumerist attitude, and millions of products remain unsold every month. We are not at all in favour of this toxic process, and we do not intend to support it. Rather, we prioritise the environmental conservation and the rights of the people making our products over income.
That’s why our lighting fixtures are produced in a minimal number of units, sometimes ten, sometimes two, and other times they are even made to order. By keeping quantities low, we can not only avoid unsold goods, but we can track the origin of the components, carefully assemble the fitting ourselves and – last but not least – elevate the quality of our products. We strive hard to design and produce long-life cycle products with transparent manufacturing processes and recyclable elements. This attitude is quite complex; it takes a lot of time and comes with consequences. It makes our products more expensive and our business less lucrative. But we are happy with this choice.
You take into account the wellbeing of others as part of your As a Ceremony economic approach and consider the combination of ethical choices with smaller profit margins your most significant accomplishment. How have you managed to create this ecosystem for yourselves, while still meeting your financial needs?
The reason why we find ourselves in this lucky position of tackling these very important issues as part of our job is that we are working hard to create a community of professionals and people that share our perspective. We can afford to work in this way not because we are well-off – far from that! But because we always look for collaboration with people who support our philosophy and recognise the value in our approach, like with The Lissome. It is a great success for us when we feel embraced and welcomed by projects and people we work with. We are confident that if we do things consciously and as a ceremony, the rest will come naturally.
Consumer behaviour and over-consumption are at the root of many of the problems we face – environmental, political or social. How can we all be more proactive in the e-waste crisis?
We think there is no such thing as a pure, sustainable product. By definition, the production of a product implies energy and materials consumption and therefore waste. We believe that the only way to be more proactive in this crisis is buying less, being conscious, checking the origin and the quality of what we are purchasing as a private person. As professionals, we aim and encourage closing the loop of materials through circular, better design. As designers, this is – at the same time – a great challenge and opportunity that we have.
Where do you see your role in the lighting design industry? What is your vision for the future?
Something that we have learnt is that alone we don’t go far and individualistic behaviours won’t help to find solutions to the crisis we are facing. We think that there is a need for a change of paradigm where different areas of expertise will come together and work together, where design meets biology, science and psychology.
Professionally, we think there are subjects that could be un-learnt and then re-learnt: for instance, we should take care of lighting pollution in the city. Facades don’t necessarily need to be lit, we should respect the darkness and consider it as part of the light. From the environmental point of view, technology will continue to research and figure out ways to control natural light and energy sources, like bioluminescence or plant-based electricity. Regarding this, beautiful projects have already been developed, and this is the path we will also continue to follow.
To find out more about As a Ceremony, visit their website and Instagram.
References:
Welcome To Sodom, documentary by Florian Weigensamer & Christian Krönes, Germany 2018.
Jonathan Watts, Treat artificial light like other forms of pollution, say scientists, The Guardian, November 2, 2020.