Continual and discrete light in the work of Sergei Zorin
https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2026-01-200-211
Abstract
The article deals with the theory of “continual light” developed by the Russian light artist Sergei Mikhailovich Zorin (1944–2023), a member of the Dvizheniye Group, founder of the Optical Theatre, and inventor of a range of light-kinetic instruments. Drawing on his autobiography, the study considers how in the context of late Soviet and post-Soviet culture Zorin linked the technological nature of light to the possibility of generating a distinctive bodily, intellectual, and spiritual experience in the viewer. He consistently opposed continual light-understood as uninterrupted and close to natural illumination–to the discrete light of film and video imagery, which he regarded as a source of perceptual fragmentation and as detrimental to human psychological and spiritual well-being. The article further analyzes the influence of Alexander Scriabin’s mysterial ideas and the broader conceptual developments surrounding continuity that shaped Zorin’s artistic concept. It argues that Zorin’s work can be interpreted through optics of Birgit Meyer’s works of “sensational forms”, insofar as the creation of a ritual viewing environment, the use of a continuous light flow, and the insistence on live performance enabled experiences of the sacred within a secular artistic setting.
About the Author
O. M. Shchedrina
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Olga M. Shchedrina
6-6, Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125047
References
1. Bandura, A. (2019), “The sphere of the fantastic in Scriabin’s late works”, Muzykal’naya akademiya, vol. 766, no. 2, pp. 89–103.
2. Kargapolova, N.A. (2025), “The 1969 Kazan conference ‘Light and Music’. On synthesis of arts, science and technology in Soviet culture of the 1960s”, in Maksimova, A.B. and Kolganova, O.V., eds., Iskusstvo zvuka i sveta: Galeevskie chteniya 2025: materialy Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii (Kazan’, 3–6 iyulya 2025 g.) [Art of sound and light. Galeyev Conference 2025: Proceedings of the International Scientific and Practical Conference (Kazan, 3–6 July 2025)], Izdatel’stvo AN RT, Kazan’, Russia, pp. 149–154.
3. Kolganova, O. (2024), “The experimental colour-music hall of the Moscow Studio for Electronic Music: from realization (1965) to virtualization (2022)”, in Vremennye i prostranstvennye, audial’nye i vizual’nye iskusstva v kul’ture i nauke Evropy i Azii: tezisy i referaty dokladov Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii (Sankt-Peterburg, 7–9 oktyabrya 2024 g.) [Temporal and spatial, auditory and visual arts in the culture and science of Europe and Asia. Abstracts and papers of the International Scientific and Practical Conference (Saint Petersburg, 7–9 October 2024)], RIII, Saint Petersburg, Russia, pp. 87–92.
4. Kolganova, O.V. (2023), “ ‘A window into the subtle world’. In memory of Sergei Zorin, the founder of the Optical Theatre”, in Maksimova, A.B. and Kolganova, O.V., eds., Iskusstvo zvuka i sveta: Galeevskie chteniya: materialy Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoprakticheskoi konferentsii “Prometei–2023” (30 iyunya – 4 iyulya 2023 g.) [Art of sound and light. Galeyev Conference. Proceedings of the International Scientific and Practical Conference “Prometheus–2023” (30 June – 4 July 2023)], Izdatel’stvo AN RT, Kazan’, Russia, pp. 35–41.
5. Meyer, B. (2006), Religious sensations. Why media, aesthetics and power matter in the study of contemporary religion, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
6. Meyer, B. (2008), “Media and the senses in the making of religious experience. An introduction”, Material Religion, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 124–134.
7. Semenova, E.D. (2025), “Soviet kinetic artists in developing the lunar base project ‘Barmingrad’”, in Maksimova, A.B. and Kolganova, O.V., eds., Iskusstvo zvuka i sveta: Galeevskie chteniya 2025: materialy Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii (Kazan’, 3–6 iyulya 2025 g.) [Art of sound and light. Galeyev Conference 2025: Proceedings of the International Scientific and Practical Conference (Kazan, 3–6 July 2025)], Izdatel’stvo AN RT, Kazan’, Russia, pp. 174–179.
8. Shchedrina, O.M. (2019), “A semiotic-affective model of sacralization in the light of the concepts by Yu.M. Lotman and S.N. Zenkin”, Skif: Voprosy studencheskoi nauki, vol. 35, no. 7, pp. 139–144.
9. Shchedrina, O.M. (2025), “Light as sacred space. From temple to media installations”, in Maksimova, A.B. and Kolganova, O.V., eds., Iskusstvo zvuka i sveta: Galeevskie chteniya 2025: materialy Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii (Kazan’, 3–6 iyulya 2025 g.) [Art of sound and light. Galeyev Conference 2025: Proceedings of the International Scientific and Practical Conference (Kazan, 3–6 July 2025)], Izdatel’stvo AN RT, Kazan’, Russia, pp. 249–253.
10. Zenkin, S.N. (2012), Nebozhestvennoe sakral’noe. Teoriya i khudozhestvennaya praktika [The non-Divine sacred. Theory and artistic practice], RGGU, Moscow, Russia.
11. Zorin, S. (2018), “Musical light-painting and the Optical Theatre. A reality of the new age”, in Kolganova, O.V., ed., Iskusstvo zvuka i sveta: Materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii (Sankt-Peterburg, 17–18 oktyabrya 2018 g.) [Art of sound and light. Proceedings of the International Scientific and Practical Conference (Saint Petersburg, 17–18 October 2018)], RIII, Saint Petersburg, Russia, pp. 54–57.
Review
For citations:
Shchedrina O.M. Continual and discrete light in the work of Sergei Zorin. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2026;1(1):200-211. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2026-01-200-211
Views:
69
JATS XML
Email this article 
