The First Lesson

The First Lesson emerged from a period of collaborative R&D involving many different collaborators and modes of exploring ideas. Based on the book of poetry Crow by Ted Hughes, the work grew from my desire to share the questions, emotions, themes and reflections that the collection evokes. From the start, the project had no predetermined outcome. The final form, an interactive screen-based installation that invites the viewer into a dialogue, emerged through ideation, experimentation, and discovery during the creative process. Central to the final outcome is the idea of the encounter between audience and artefact, creating a participatory, posthuman dialogue that challenges traditional human-centred expectations of control.

Co-Creative R&D

The project began with co-creative R&D workshops, involving a diverse group of participants. These sessions explored the poem’s themes through movement, improvisation, and embodied play, using dance and physical exercises to investigate how our bodies relate to and can express the ideas and narratives within the text. Motion capture and other technological interventions were used in these workshops to inform understanding of gesture, timing, and the playful destructiveness of movement. The insights gained from these sessions guided the evolution of the final artefact.

The Installation

The final installation features a large screen paired with a microphone. On the screen, participants are presented with the clear instruction: “SAY LOVE.” When a participant speaks into the microphone, a fragile, naked, pictorial body immediately falls from the sky, collapsing lifelessly on the floor. The system responds with messages such as “NO! LOVE, SAY LOVE” or “YOU’RE NOT SAYING IT RIGHT,” before prompting them again with “SAY LOVE.” Each new attempt creates another body, adding to a growing pile that accumulates over time. As successive visitors interact, the pile becomes a collective record of the audience’s participation.

Audience Reactions and Impact

Audience responses varied widely. Some tried to “win,” experimenting with intonation or volume to achieve a perceived correct response, seeking reward or recognition. Others delighted in the destructive humour of the falling bodies, although the initial amusement often gave way to reflection on vulnerability, consequence, and repetition (it’s funny until it isn’t). Moments of slapstick gradually transform into unease, mirroring the poem’s exploration of consequence and emotional ambiguity.

Through this installation, participants encounter a tangible representation of fragility and relationality: each digital body is vulnerable, anonymous, and fleeting, yet it accumulates to form a collective, shifting landscape. The work demonstrates how embodied, interactive experiences can translate literary themes into perceptible, affective forms, encouraging reflection on human emotion, agency, and the responsibilities inherent in our interactions.

Reflections

The First Lesson highlights the importance of open-ended, exploratory R&D, showing how dance, movement, and technological experimentation with multiple participants can inform and enrich an interactive digital artefact. The process underscored the value of co-creation in generating nuanced, emotionally resonant experiences, and continues to influence my current explorations of VR, emergent choreography, and audience participation.