Shadows of Light

An interactive video installation that rewards stillness by slowly turning visitors into layered, dripping silhouettes of light and colour.

Shadows of Light showing two layered human silhouettes in blue and white, surrounded by flowing fields of colour that drip vertically down the screen.

Shadows of Light is an interactive video installation that asks visitors to slow down rather than react quickly. When someone stands still in front of the work, the system gradually captures their silhouette and uses it as a digital stencil, building fields of colour that drip, spread, and merge with the traces of other bodies. The image accumulates through attention and patience, turning the act of viewing into the condition that makes the work visible.

Time is the medium that matters here. Because the work rewards stillness and leaves traces behind, it turns interaction into residue rather than instant feedback. That shift from live presence to delayed mark-making keeps Shadows of Light close to May’s wider interest in memory, recording, and the fragile afterlife of experience within digital systems.

Additional notes

  • Format: interactive single-channel video installation using a single computer, Microsoft Kinect, and a single video projector or monitor.
  • Size: variable.
  • First presented at Kinetica Art Fair in 2011.
  • Two instances of the work were shown side by side in the South Tank at Tate Modern, London, in 2013.
  • Included in Embodied Encounters at the Beall Center for Art and Technology, Irvine, in 2016-17.
  • Also exhibited as a solo presentation at the University of Calgary in 2016.
  • The original 2009 version of Shadows of Light, developed with Martin A. Smith, took the form of a dance performance in London.

Talks, exhibitions, and updates connected to this work.

  • Shadows of Light at HCI 2016

    Alex May presented Shadows of Light in the HCI 2016 gallery at Bournemouth University, with the installation framed by discussion around slow interaction and cross-disciplinary HCI practice.

  • University of Calgary International Visiting Artist

    Alex May presented a solo exhibition of Shadows of Light at the University of Calgary, alongside an artist talk and a Painting With Light video-mapping workshop.

  • 4Humanities interview with Alex May

    4Humanities published an interview with Alex May about programming, video mapping, digital preservation, and the questions about code and perception that run through his work.

  • Shadows of Light at ICT2013

    Alex May exhibited Shadows of Light at ICT2013 in Vilnius as part of ICT & Art Connect, bringing interactive installation into a wider art-and-technology forum.

Selected images

Installation view of Shadows of Light at Tate Modern, with two large projections facing visitors in a dark gallery space.
Installation view at Tate Modern, London, 2013.
Visitors gathered in front of a large projection of Shadows of Light at Tate Modern, where overlapping silhouettes appear in blue and yellow.
Installation view at Tate Modern, London, 2013.
Installation view of Shadows of Light at the Beall Center showing a large projection with softly merged silhouettes and visitors moving through the darkened space.
Installation view in Embodied Encounters at the Beall Center for Art and Technology, Irvine, 2016-17.