FIRE, LIGHT AND SHADOWS

Ever since it was first discovered, fire was not only a primary source of energy used for everything from cooking food to fusing metal, but also a source of light that could dissipate the shadows and keep ferocious beasts away during the night. The concept of light and shadow thus began to indicate that standing before a flame created shadows that reproduced, deformed or magnified, the outline of persons and things. The variability of light emissions soon also began to be used for entertainment: by alternating light and shadows, the hands could be used to mimic easily identifiable silhouettes, or to make specific shapes in wood and leather. According to history the first to use this method were the Chinese, in time leading to actual performances not very different from our own Sicilian puppet shows. By inscrutable channels, or perhaps by mere coincidence, that sort of performance, known as Chinese shadows, eventually reached the West, such that Plato in his allegory of the cave transformed it into a memorable metaphor on the limitations of human knowledge. [1]¹.