First Spark

2023

Commissioned by Chichester Festival Theatre, this interactive installation took the form of a memory-infused mirror, inviting viewers to engage with layered personal and collective histories of theatre-going. Built using TouchDesigner, the mirror responded to touch, revealing fragments of archival material and community-submitted stories tucked behind its reflective surface. Programmed to be both intimate and uncanny, it offered a hybrid experience: part object, part interface, part portal.

Ephemera—ticket stubs, playbills, handwritten notes—were physically embedded into the mirror’s frame, framing the digital with the tactile. These relics of past performances served as both anchor and invitation, drawing the viewer into a deeper interaction. On contact, the mirror’s surface shimmered into life, displaying digitised archive materials interwoven with contemporary responses—visual echoes of stage lights, curtains, applause.

At unexpected moments, the phone placed beside the mirror would ring. When answered, a voice—sometimes crackling with static—would recount a memory: a first trip to the theatre, a school play, a moment of awe under the stage lights. These recordings, collected from local residents, formed a living oral archive, animated not through spectacle but through chance and intimacy.

The piece explored the relationship between memory, technology, and performance, asking how personal narratives become part of cultural memory. It invited viewers to consider the theatre not only as a site of spectacle, but as a container for individual transformation—a place where people first felt seen, heard, moved.