Seth Riskin Lecture

Last week I had the opportunity to hear Seth Riskin speak in our auditorium at UNCG. He has studied something that all of us don't stop to really think about, light. Seth was a past gymnast and has used his ability in his recent works of art. He uses the light through lasers, cameras, holograms, reflections, rainbow transmissions, and much more to portray his work. He dresses up in a special black costume that has lights on it and he dances as the lights move in different ways to create things that have never been seen before. It's hard to imagine viewing light in a different way than we know it. Seth has also experimented with sky dancing where he is up in the air as light is projected from him.

His studies consist of the history of light itself. He talked about the anthropology of light and how a light-body is the identification between light and life. Light has been talked about in the Bible and how God says he is light. Light is used through fire during certain kinds of worship. Fire dancing can be seen in Hindu, India, which is where Seth got his idea for light dancing.

Seth linked how design and light are connected. As designers, we need to think about how natural light and artificial light can work together for the spaces we design to help best define the space that it is being used for. Light is not something that you just add to a room, but it is something that helps define the room by the mood and feelings you get from their luminosity. Seth showed us a quote by Louis Kahn that said, "A great building must begin with the immeasurable, must go through measurable means of design and in the end must be immeasurable." I will think of this quote every time I start a new design project.

To see more on Seth Riskin, go to his website at www.sethriskin.com .