[ISEA98] Paper: Seth Riskin & Noah Riskin – Light Dance: the Twin Experience

Abstract

In this paper we discuss our experience as identical twins, the impulse it gives to our “Light Dance” art and the use of contemporary media in expression of our extraordinary relationship. We begin with a description of the fundamental perception of our twinhood: a persistent intuition of oneness evident in the complementarity and implied wholeness of our relationship — which inspires us in our artwork to transcend the limits of individual physical and psychological identity. We recall our collaborative careers in gymnastics: the empathy in our performer/viewer exchange which pushed the limits of our bodies and separateness, found manifestation in a shared U.S. national title, and inspired the development of our “Light Dance” art form. A description of the art follows: light as the medium of transformation of the body and the extension of intimacy in the performer/viewer exchange, from the twin sphere to the public space; the various tools that transpose body movement into light phenomena in silent, space-defining performances: body-mounted projectors, costumes of optical materials, and recently developed optical sub-spaces which translate body movement into 3D optical effects, and lay ground for the use of computer forms and spaces in “Light Dance” performances. We conclude with thoughts on what the twin experience has to say to our technologically linked society, and to the development of digital media toward transcending limits of space, time, and body.

  • Seth Riskin & Noah Riskin, US/Germany. Identical twins Noah and Seth Riskin studied painting and trained in gymnastics at Ohio State University 1981-86, sharing a U.S. national title in 1985. Noah continued in gymnastics to become a national team member and international champion betore graduate study as a Merit Scholar at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Seth attended the M.I.T. Center for Advanced Visual Studies where he developed the “Light Dance” art form and received a master of science degree in 1989. The Riskins collaboratively develop their “Light Dance” art and research of light, and their “Anthropology of Light” curriculum. Noah is currently on the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts School of Dance, and Seth is a fellow at the Academy for Media Arts in Cologne, Germany.