On Friday, July 26, about 150 people gathered in the Elephant Art Center, to see five creative people present their work in 20 Powerpoint slides, having only 20 seconds to elucidate each one. This was the ever first PechaKucha Night hosted in Kunming, with more to come.
It was a fantastic event, with lots of opportunity to mingle and meet with the speakers while enjoying a drink from Wooden Paradise. Here is an impression in pictures from photographer Song Baolong (宋抱龙). A bit later, we will share a video covering full presentations from the event. At the end of October or early November, we'll host the next PechKucha Night, so stay tuned if you'd like to join.
Mamur Ahsan Mahtab from Bangladesh shares his development as an oil painter and his views of society by showing his paintings.
Maya Wen from Kunming explains her vision for Wake Culture Center, where she aims to bring together the arts community of Kunming.
David Lingerak from Holland talks about working as a Dutch videographer in China, and about his documentary projects and shooting Formula One races.
Efat Razowana Reya from Bangladesh showcases her performance artwork and what motivates her creative process.
Ming Fengxian, from Kunming, talks about minority culture in Yunnan and how it effects architecture.
Adam Roberts from the UK couldn't make it because he had to dash to Hollywood to attend a movie premiere for a film of which he designed the poster. We hope to see him as a speaker at another PechaKucha Night!
Comments
Why does getting together for a discussion have to have a weird brand name? Very spooky.
Spooky? Maybe, but then only for those who didn't read the first article on this topic.......................
Good that this happened. I should have gone.
We are now devolving into a culture of instant gratification, short attention spans and sound bites. Nothing is worth giving more than 20 seconds worth of discussion before moving on to the next topic. Ideas are now commoditized and pass around like fast food because we are no longer capable of in depth thought. Much like fast food, immediately after consumption it feel as if you are full, but in reality, nothing of real value was given. This is true of TED talks, it started well but soon became a money making scheme where anybody willing to pay the fee can give a "talk". Most talks given, however, are nothing more than filler that can be googled, nothing ground breaking. It has more value to the presenter for it adds a line to their list of "accomplishments" than the audience.
I'm sure this event is well meaning and has perceived value to those who participated but I wouldn't recommend patting yourself on the back for attending.
Please excuse the ramblings from this grumpy old geezer.
@Trumper
You have valid points. Everything is about 'likes' & 'followers' and 'clickbaits'. Not to go off on your point but I remember when T.V. series had killer 'theme' songs. These new T.V. series only have a 5-10 seconds intro. This is all due to the attention span of this generation or lack thereof.
Off topic, but related to theme songs. When we watched terrestrial TV we listened to the whole theme, even if only in the background while we quickly made a cup of tea or finished off some other chore. With streaming, or watching box sets, we quickly FF over the theme song and titles. We are missing a lot of great music.
Everything else said by the last two posters can be captured within the idea that we no longer live in a society, we live in a market.
wow, we no longer live in a society. that bad huh?
it's a bunch of people promoting their work. if they each spoke for 2 hours, would you stick around for 72 hours? they are letting you know who they are and what they do and if you are interested, you can delve more deeply into their work.
If you are not interested in their work or project, even 20 seconds is too long. If you are truly into what they are doing, you would love to hear every little nuance that would give you better insight.
From what I can gather, this event is meant to create a platform for people to showcase their work but because the audience might not be interested, you'd have to distill ideas into 20 second sound bites. So that begs the question, if they aren't interested in your project why would you bother pitching it to them? And as an audience member, why would you go to one of these presentations if you are not interested in what they are presenting? Anything worth doing is worth doing well, unless this is one of those "social" events where people can go and pretend they are more "cultured" than the rest of us. Then in that case, lets just go through the motions as quickly as possible so we can get to the drinking and socializing bit at the end.
Are you jealous because you weren't invited on the stage and you have nothing to pitch?
Did anyone commenting here actually go to the event? I'd like to heear comments from those who did.
Pecha Kucha is a trademark and the presentation gimmick is a side business set up by an architecture firm based in Tokyo. I have no problem with that, especially if it gets people together to exchange ideas, just find it a bit odd.
Agree with cloudy completely. Maybe a scientologist or something like that. Name just sounds too weird. :) I dont even want to write it. :)
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