Saturday 14 November 2009

Pecha Kucha, London #1 @ Big Chill House

"PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.  It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace." www.pecha-kucha.org

I recently attended the Pecha Kuchan night in London.  A brilliant evening with presentations from a variety of exciting and inspiring speakers.  

Highlights of the evening were...

"Waldemeyer transforms the flamboyent Prince of Power Pop into an ultra-kitsch neon Statue of Liberty with his new era of laser bling." (www.waldemeyer.com/MIKA.html)
Moritz Waldemeyer did a fantastic talk about his work and collaborations in music, fashion and furniture.  I particularly loved his coffee table that turned into a clubbing laser dance cage, unfortunately I haven't been able to find pictures on the internet to put on my blog.  And his commission for the Mika 'We are Golden' music video in which Mika requested to have lasers coming from his crotch, sheer genius!!!


Some beautiful work by Conjoin:me
"Sian-Kate Mooney and Hedley Roberts have conjoined their creative practice to develop a series of art-fashion pieces that explore the relationship between the image, the textile and the conjoined form."  Conjoin:me facebook group


Design Against Crime  gave a really interesting talk about how they try to find methods of tackling crime such as shoplifting, by roleplaying the actions of shoplifters.  I particularly loved the comical concept of the pizza box laptop case by Human Beans, let's just hope you don't come across a burglar who's a little partial to pizza!


Alpha Tomamu Towers by Klein Dytham architecture
Mark Dytham the co-founder of Pecha Kucha has an impressive portfolio of architecture.  I admire that not only does he design some spectacular buildings, but the ability of being able to integrate pattern successfully onto the buildings veneers in a way that compliments its surroundings.  I was particularly drawn to the Alpha Tomamu Towers in Japan, two buildings, one decorated in tones of grey and the other in tones of green pixelated camouflage.  A brilliant concept which means that in summer the green building is camouflaged in it's surroundings, and in the winter the grey building appears to be hidden.

List of presenters at Pecha Kucha, London #1...
Baron Von Nasti
Marcus Fairs