Fiat Lux is one of an ongoing series of works by S. Astrid Bin, Charles Horn and Adrian Giddings into the possibilities of using light as an expressive medium.

While many other video-based works have been produced in this field, they rely on stop-motion animation and video post-processing techniques and produce finite results.

The artists involved with Fiat Lux have instead chosen to focus on developing an open-ended, interactive environment in which performers draw with custom-made lightpens and can see themselves and their drawings projected in real time.

While it is simple and intuitive to take part in Fiat Lux on one level, the lack of a surface on which to draw coupled with the freedom to move about in three dimensions while drawing and interacting with other participants quickly makes those involved aware of a host of new possibilities. The body’s extension in space becomes more apparent as does its ability to both mask light and be used as a drawing implement in its own right. Also, through varying the speed of movement in the space a wide range of drawing strokes can be quickly developed.

What at first glance may appear to the viewer to be abstract movement by the performers is revealed to be a deliberate mark-making act through the resulting projection.