For the Performing User final performance, I revived my meditation on death. Of my performances from this semester, this one best fit the parameters -- a large room with an audience of ~50 seated people.

It was very different from doing the performance in class where everyone was working on the same assignment and at least had some idea what was going to happen going into it. The most significant difference was timing - this performance began at 6:30 on a Friday evening, which is not primetime for death meditations. I think, however, that this played nicely the juxtapositions embedded in my piece in a nice (albiet very awkward) way. I heard that several people were upset because they thought they were getting a relaxing meditation and then the script took a twist.

Here’s the video for the performance. The lights were dimmed, so the visual part doesn’t really come through, but you can get a sense of the audio. (bonus: I received a couple compliments on my voice afterward, and one person asked me to do voiceover work for their thesis)

And here’s the text I used. I borrowed some ideas from various meditations on death I found online (I had no idea it was even a thing) as well as phrasings and such from my own meditation practice.