Pecha Kucha #16, Vancouver BC.

30Apr11

On April 28, 2011 The Vogue theater hosted Vancouver’s 16th Pecha Kucha, an event produced by Cause + Affect, organized by Steven Cox and Becki Chan Begovic.

I have lost all information on the band, but I thoroughly enjoyed their entertainment to start off the evening.

For those of you that have been to Pecha Kucha, heres a little breakdown: A simple presentation where you show 20 images, each 20 seconds long. 20×20.

I was led to believe that this event represented grass roots change, inspiration, and a sense of instilled morality for all those who attended. I was only partly right. What I found was that Pecha Kucha #16  Vancouver represented more of a showcasing of peoples achievements, passions, and projects; all very inspirational. By no means was I disappointed with what I saw and heard, I was awakened to the raw truth of, well, society.

Paul Conder of Waddell and Conder opened up the evening of presenters. He discussed many of his ideas and accomplishments as designer, kind of taking the crowd through a timeline of his career. I always find it fascinating how most everybody can relate to certain events in the world at specific times in history, each with their own set of memories, each very valid.

Lauren Weisler spoke to us about DOXA Documentary Film Festival, of which she’s the executive director. I’m always very interested in these events, but always manage to miss them as they come through town.

Joseph Wu showed us the amazement he called origami, but I think everybody knew it was magic. Some artists just humble a person when they show you some of their projects they’ve worked on; Joseph did that. Before the event, I sat watching Joseph play with a origami bird of some sort, tweaking it ever so slightly to no doubt get the perfect angle… or maybe it had just got flattened riding in his coat pocket…

Watching Joseph do this, you can tell there’s passion. He was real, Joseph was.

Shary Contrary was a very interesting speaker, who explained her role and what exactly Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School is all about. In a nutshell, they go around town to various venue’s with live models. The idea is that it’s alt, which means burlesque-type models, often doing some sort of a show to keep the sketchers entertained. Some of the photos that were shown made me feel like I was really missing out by not joining Shary on any of her escapades. Maybe the future holds something here.

I enjoyed Darrell Kopke of institute B’s presentation for it was the first one to kind of step away from the “this is what I do, where I’ve come from, and what I’m going to be doing” approach. It was more like a time bomb slowly ticking away, waiting for that moment when it all comes together in a speeding circle.

It could have been just his brilliant pictures. To me that’s something that’s very important for these presentations. Make sure you make it visually appealing. I can appreciate the fact that technology is something that is hard for a lot of people to accept, but the fact is it’s here to stay, so make it pretty, make it work for you, and make it send your message brilliantly; those are the effective presentations.

Michelle Rizzardo & Trevor Fleming was the only duo of the night. I believe they owned Lifetime Collective, a fashion designer.

I liked their line, I liked the fact that both of them really seemed to be into the real world, not based on a fake image that only Hollywood is capable of achieving. I think it would have been really interesting to talk to both of them about where they see their future taking them. Both of them really sounded like they are constantly on the go, constantly pushing into new areas, and exploring their potential. I have mad respect for people like this. All the speakers seemed to carry this sort of charisma.

Easily the most flamboyant of the lot, Sean Heather, made an impressive presentation: enter Irish bags and a drinking ballad to finish off the set.

He walked us through the history of him; his presence in Vancouver. For those of you Vancouverites who do not know one of his restaurants, which carry the names of Everything Cafe, Salty Tongue Cafe, Shebeen Whiskey House, Salt Tasting Room, or Irish Heather, I believe you should venture outside and lend your ear to the buzz. I personally enjoy Salt, a little tasting room for cheeses and wine in the heart of Gastown.

Can’t go wrong with Irish bags. You really cant.

Sean talked about his various trials he’s faced as a restaurant owner, through the brewmaster of Guinness, Fergal Murray’s ribbon cutting and funding local cheese makers survival. A very deep routed man in Vancouvers scene it would appear. A man capable of creating a very hot spot, as well as a very strong sense of culture. Probably the Irish in him. (Sean took the time to corrected me for I was under the understanding the war pipes were bags, and the musician was Scottish, not Irish. See his comment at the bottom of this post.) Great work with bringing the Irish War Pipes onto the stage, a clutch move!

Katrina Pacey‘s talk was very much what I expected from Pecha Kucha, to be honest. It was local, it smelled of activist, it had drive, had fight for power, it had equal rights, and a very touchy topic: prostitution. Through Katrina’s organization, Pivot Legal Society, she spoke of her battle for the last few years she has been facing, trying to help make a safe existence for everybody, not just the nuclear family. I like her quote there: “Your existence gives me hope.”

Her pictures were very powerful. I felt hers was a very raw presentation. A very good voice to be heard from.

Myriam LaRoche was from Eco Fashion Week. She talked about her struggle to transform from a plastic, frenzy driven fashionista to a more eco-friendly, environmentally conscious fashion designer.

I found it quite comforting to hear that she believes, as I do, about how all our clothes should be second hand, reworked, re-used. There may be a few pieces of clothing that we need to keep us feeling right about ourselves (queue unmentionables and socks!), but for the most part, we don’t need to buy new clothing to be fashionable. We need to be concerned with the world’s welfare every time we support the inhabitants of it by pulling out our wallet. Her presentation spoke a lot to me.

Steven Hill was a very interesting character, theatre director of Leaky Heaven Circus. What he seemed to be representing was a (or his) circus theatre… just what you’d expect from the name.

Steven talked to us about his creative direction him and his fellow theatre actors have followed to get to the point they are at now, what has brought them their success. It was really interesting to me how they used already well known plays and transformed them into their own, of course with a twist! A recent quote I just heard: “There is no original thought” rung in my head as I understood how we all like to feel that we create original ideas, but do we really have an original thought? Isn’t what we do just transforming our current surroundings into our own design? I personally like inspiration.

I really enjoyed what Carson Ting had to share. Carson brought us through a sort of lead by example explanation of why he felt that becoming as transparent as possibly was simply a great thing. He is the Art Director of Rethink, and founder of Chairman Ting Industries.

He revealed his creative process through his pictures, becoming transparent in an industry many people only ever see the final product in, not realizing or appreciating what goes into the process. This was also something that Joseph Wu talked about when he showed us one of his designs and a box of the prototypes. He made a very good point that from one project, he was able to make many different products from it. For example, he would do the actual art project he was hired to do, as well as make a short video of the process of making the art project, and then also animating the art project into another art project. Really expanding his capabilities and reach as an artist into many different genres, pushing the idea of well rounded to the max.

Samantha Jo Simmonds of Public Dreams had a very powerful message, which was very similar to Shary Contrary, in that there are no boundaries to the creative process. Sometimes the creative expression is all the process itself, rather then the final product. It brings to mind the idea about being about the journey, not the final destination.

The final speaker to present was Kahlil Ashanti. This man, you could just feel, had personality. I felt his message was of perseverance, have fun, and believe. His story was of blessings, luck, and success. He was a very friendly fellow.

He spoke of how a person should always be a beacon of hope; being a person to which those around you can feel the strength, cheer, and camaraderie; fueling with strength from your own strength. I believe in Kahlil’s message. It’s what I found in it at any rate.

His titles intrigued me with ‘Survivor’ in there. You know it’s about to get real with that word.

All photos courtesy of Ned Tobin. See more on flickr.

This event has also been covered at Chronicles of Times.

Filed under: Expression, Inspiration, Review, World Conscience   |  12 Comments
Tags: bc, carson ting, cause and affect, darrell kopke, joseph wu, katrina pacey, lauren weisler, myriam laroche, paul conder, pecha kucha, samantha jo simmonds, sean heather, shary contrary, steven hill, vancouver, vogue