  Light provides a powerful means of controlling physical behavior of materials
but is rarely used to power and guide active matter systems. We demonstrate
optical control of liquid crystalline topological solitons dubbed "skyrmions",
which recently emerged as highly reconfigurable inanimate active particles
capable of exhibiting emergent collective behaviors like schooling. Because of
a chiral nematic liquid crystal's natural tendency to twist and its facile
response to electric fields and light, it serves as a testbed for dynamic
control of skyrmions and other active particles. Using ambient-intensity
unstructured light, we demonstrate large-scale multifaceted reconfigurations
and unjamming of collective skyrmion motions powered by oscillating electric
fields and guided by optically-induced obstacles and patterned illumination.
