First Contact presents the original artifacts from the first night of my pendulum experiments. These works were physically generated using a makeshift setup, before I had control over the system, where motion, rotation, and light all behaved unpredictably. The light source was loosely rigged and free to spin, with an improvised aperture that shifted with angle, causing variations in brightness, shape, and exposure throughout each path. These conditions introduced distortions and inconsistencies that give each piece its distinct character. Every work from that night is unique and cannot be reproduced, capturing the earliest emergence of the patterns that would come to define a multi-year series. First Contact No. 5 begins with a broad, circular motion before gradually collapsing inward, as the system loses energy. Subtle imbalances in the setup introduce a shifting offset, causing the motion to compress into near-linear paths before opening back up again along a different axis. This alternating behavior creates a layered structure that moves between expansion and collapse over time.