A Seminar’s Worth of Creativity in a 400-Second Slide Show

Image Gallery image by Guillermo Damián Fernández / www.gferna.com.ar

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On an outdoor patio in Kampala, Uganda, observers lounge in the near-darkness, watching as an image is projected on a bare white sheet slung between two trees. In Reykjavik, Iceland, a spellbound audience fills a basement bar and waits for the first slide to illuminate the wall. In Toronto, a crowded pavilion is abuzz as the lights dim and the first presenter takes the stage. In more than 200 cities speckling the globe, Pecha Kucha is bringing people together for art, design, and change.

The concept is simple: Each presenter shows 20 slides, and each slide is shown for 20 seconds. Originally created as a way for designers and architects to share new projects and ideas, Pecha Kucha (Japanese for the sound of conversation) has expanded to include participants from virtually every field, including artists, politicians, comedians, and journalists.

Mark Dytham, a British architect who founded Pecha Kucha with Astrid Klein in their creative studio in Tokyo, says that the events have proved to be a fantastic showcase for unknown talent. “One of the biggest surprises was that in some of the smaller cities, people would say, ‘That was amazing! We had no idea there was so much creative talent working right here.’ It’s as if people don’t realize what they have right at home, because we’re not really communicating effectively anymore,” he says.

At a recent Pecha Kucha night in Toronto, graphic designer Bob Hambly, a thin, middle-aged man in a black polo shirt, was the first to present. In a slightly nasal voice, he explained that his presentation would be on “the design and art of nature,” at which point a 10-foot image of a parrot in a wooden box was projected onto the screen behind him.

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