Final Performance Concept

For my final performance I want to recreate my spring break experience from last year. Last year I went with three of my friends back country skiing in the San Juan mountain ranges. While we were hiking out to the cabin we were staying at we nearly froze to death two separate times. This experience was significant for me because I had really never felt anything or had to go through anything like that before and it was a really eye opening event. It really made me rethink a lot of things and made me appreciate others that I had taken for granted in the past.

For my presentation I was thinking of using pictures I had taken during the trip as a background to show what the area looked like and make it easier to understand. I was also thinking of having a soundtrack in the background to help convey the feeling of isolation/wilderness that we experienced while we were out there. I was thinking it would probably be something like wind blowing, snow falling, trees moving, something to just give it an outdoors feel. I figure that engaging with both sight and sound it would help to immerse the audience into what it felt like being out in the wilderness.

Another experimental idea I was thinking of bringing to my performance was trying to convey the feeling of freezing or getting colder. I was thinking that if I brought in cups filled with ice or something similar and had the audience hold on to them it might work. One of the greatest sensations that we had to deal with while we were out on the trail was getting progressively colder. At the time it was scary because we thought it might be dangerous and I think that by just having people hold something very cold it might give a similar effect. I think that just by making the audience a little uncomfortable or irritated by getting colder it could help illustrate my point or make it more relatable.

Another sound bite I am trying to think of a way of implementing is animal noises. The first night we were out the shelter we were staying in we could here wolves circling us. I don’t want it to go throughout the whole presentation since it only had to deal with one night but if there is a way to have it go over the rest of the background noises I think it might also add to the immersion.

Another way that I could add effect is when I’m describing the different points of the trip I could change the lighting in the room. Since it spanned a couple of days I could have the lights on during the day time portions and off during the night. Just another way I thought might add a sense of immersion.

Overall it was a really difficult but extremely memorable experience going on this trip and for that reason I want to talk about it for my final performance.