Tonight, after I walked out of my office for the last time, my friends Karen and James and I found a prime piece of patio real estate (Las Margaritas on West 4th), had a few margaritas, and headed to the Vancouver Museum for Vancouver's second-ever Pecha Kucha Night.
Pecha Kucha Night was started by an architecture firm in Tokyo in 2003 as a sort of open-mic/pitch/showcase for young artists and designers, a place where people in the arts community could network. It's kind of like an indie show and tell, and all sorts of people present, not just designers: actors, artists, musicians, politicians, activists, urban planners, writers, dreamers. While there's an incredible range of speakers, they tend to be thinking about the same central themes: how do we imagine community? How do we define culture?
Pecha Kucha Night happens in hundreds of cities across the world, but only started in Vancouver on May 7, 2008. James was one of the speakers at Volume 1. Karen and I went as Team Nevision (the Pecha Kucha Night promotional materials helpfully misspelled James' last name, Nevison), and had a great time. There's beer, pretzels, lots of scene-y artsy hipsters in trilby hats and skinny jeans to make fun of, and a DJ spinning during intermissions. When we found out at the end of Volume 1 that my Shoe God, John Fluevog, would be presenting tonight at Volume 2, I knew we were going to have to make a return to Pecha Kucha Night.
The Pecha Kucha format is called "20x20": each presenter gets 20 slides, which are featured on the screen for 20 seconds each. This adds up to a 6 minute and 40 second presentation-6 minutes and 40 seconds to close the deal, sell your idea, bare your soul. Presentations can be hit and miss. At Volume 1, a lawyer from Pivot Legal Society gave an incredible presentation: his slides featured black and white photographic portraits of homeless people in the downtown East Side. His commentary while the slides were playing? He read statistics. The names of new (unaffordable) condominium complexes being built in downtown East Side. The number of units. The number of hotel closures in the area. Another photographer found himself halfway through his presentation and at a loss for words, so he simply sat down and let his work speak for itself, and the auditorium sat in silence as his images flickered across the screen.
So, what did John Fluevog talk about tonight at Volume 2? Did he expound on the inspiration for his shoe designs or provide a sneak preview of his Fall 2008 collection? Nope. He talked about (and showed slides of) cars. "Cute, small cars." No sermon, just an enthusiastic commentary on personal photos of cars, anecdotes about certain cars from his "many" lives, excited descriptions of "hot damn!" cars. That's Pecha Kucha Night. A children's book illustrator gave a presentation on the History of Cute (for the record, she believes cuteness has to do with the eyes. The more eye, the better. The more unseeing the pupil, the better. See: Hello Kitty). A glass artist from the Sunshine Coast showed pictures of his new studio and his family. An architect showed pictures and sketches of his current work in progress.
Pecha Kucha Night Vancouver resumes in the fall. I highly recommend. Click here for more information.
There is a hint of summer in the air. Tonight was sunny but cool. The patio at Las Margaritas is heated; combined with the sunshine it lulled me into a false sense of July. I'm desperate to have a taste of West Coast summer before heading to London...
Pecha Kucha Night was started by an architecture firm in Tokyo in 2003 as a sort of open-mic/pitch/showcase for young artists and designers, a place where people in the arts community could network. It's kind of like an indie show and tell, and all sorts of people present, not just designers: actors, artists, musicians, politicians, activists, urban planners, writers, dreamers. While there's an incredible range of speakers, they tend to be thinking about the same central themes: how do we imagine community? How do we define culture?
Pecha Kucha Night happens in hundreds of cities across the world, but only started in Vancouver on May 7, 2008. James was one of the speakers at Volume 1. Karen and I went as Team Nevision (the Pecha Kucha Night promotional materials helpfully misspelled James' last name, Nevison), and had a great time. There's beer, pretzels, lots of scene-y artsy hipsters in trilby hats and skinny jeans to make fun of, and a DJ spinning during intermissions. When we found out at the end of Volume 1 that my Shoe God, John Fluevog, would be presenting tonight at Volume 2, I knew we were going to have to make a return to Pecha Kucha Night.
The Pecha Kucha format is called "20x20": each presenter gets 20 slides, which are featured on the screen for 20 seconds each. This adds up to a 6 minute and 40 second presentation-6 minutes and 40 seconds to close the deal, sell your idea, bare your soul. Presentations can be hit and miss. At Volume 1, a lawyer from Pivot Legal Society gave an incredible presentation: his slides featured black and white photographic portraits of homeless people in the downtown East Side. His commentary while the slides were playing? He read statistics. The names of new (unaffordable) condominium complexes being built in downtown East Side. The number of units. The number of hotel closures in the area. Another photographer found himself halfway through his presentation and at a loss for words, so he simply sat down and let his work speak for itself, and the auditorium sat in silence as his images flickered across the screen.
So, what did John Fluevog talk about tonight at Volume 2? Did he expound on the inspiration for his shoe designs or provide a sneak preview of his Fall 2008 collection? Nope. He talked about (and showed slides of) cars. "Cute, small cars." No sermon, just an enthusiastic commentary on personal photos of cars, anecdotes about certain cars from his "many" lives, excited descriptions of "hot damn!" cars. That's Pecha Kucha Night. A children's book illustrator gave a presentation on the History of Cute (for the record, she believes cuteness has to do with the eyes. The more eye, the better. The more unseeing the pupil, the better. See: Hello Kitty). A glass artist from the Sunshine Coast showed pictures of his new studio and his family. An architect showed pictures and sketches of his current work in progress.
Pecha Kucha Night Vancouver resumes in the fall. I highly recommend. Click here for more information.
There is a hint of summer in the air. Tonight was sunny but cool. The patio at Las Margaritas is heated; combined with the sunshine it lulled me into a false sense of July. I'm desperate to have a taste of West Coast summer before heading to London...