Sequoia
Celebrating the joys and sensations of day-hiking.
How would you describe hiking to someone who’s never hiked before? What about the sensation of scrambling on the top of peaks with the view of cascading mountains set in a clear blue sky? As avid hikers, we aimed to explore the sensation and feeling that come with exploring the mountains that exemplifies continuity and endless expansiveness.
Sequoia is an sound reactive video-art project inspired from both our past experience as hikers and also from a flash game series by the name of “William and Sly”. The game explores a similar experience where you play as a fox exploring a mountainscape while activating forest spirits. We used the soundtrack in “William and Sly 2” as the backdrop for this project, since it’s composition encompasses the energy and sence of presence within the forest. The name “Sequoia” refers to the Sequoia National Park in California, which is revered for it’s old growth forests and remarkable hiking experience.
Sequoia is made up of two elements, the reactive particle cloud set in the blue sky, and the cascading mountains below. We explored two variations of the project, one with a fog that encompasses the mountains and sky (Figure 1), and the other featuring clear skies (Figure 2). While the fog version connects with those who hike in cloudy/rainy conditions, we went with clear skies since hiking in clear weather is more widely preferred. The visuals in the project give off a hazy shine which represents the nostalgia filter of past memories hiking, where childhood experiences feel heavenly in comparison to what hikers experience in the present.
Sequoia was developed entirely in Max8 with the help of Jitter.