First Instinct is a Video art piece by Sylvie Barbier, exploring the series of work Hybrid Instinct. Human often define themselves as seperate from animals, the verticality of the body posture being a key distinction. Here the performer is moving on a horisontal posture as to relink human to the animal kingdom. The sounds has no natural sound and no words as to reflect a inner world before language, yet a buzzing sound is constantly present, haunting the experience. The instinct leading the game of survival. The performer in the start of the film find themselves trapped, fighting the ropes. Yet the more she fights, the more trap she finds herselves, it is an embody illustration of the function of the mind. The more we tense, the more we grasp, the more trap we find ourselves. The chock is what wakes her up out of the fight. Once freeded, she walks away and undergoes an exploration of her body. The beginign of consciouness, of awarenss of a seperate " self", exploring one's hand, one's mouth, like a new born. this exploration leads her to then explore her reflection, a reference to the myth of Narcisse, she then jumps into her reflection, like diving into own unconscious realm. A moment of contemplation as she floats. She then crawls her way out of the water, a visual that reminds us of the our ancestor coming out of the wather onto the land. She then find a tree and rest.The close up to her breath, reminds us of this sign of aliveness, as the inner breath is the first action we take out of the womb and the outer breath will be our last action. Bubbles come in, almost coming as making us wonder if this was a dream or reality.