Pecha Kucha 2012 - Danielle Phelan
Pecha Kucha's third year running in Whistler was a great success. The event ran Monday 16th at Maxx Fish and included presenters like Marcus Eriksson, Chili Thom, Madeleine Grant, Mike Douglas and Dave Olson. The audience within the club-turned-presentation house enjoyed hearing about everything from rat control to roller derby girls, Japanese interactive cooking to new snowboard bindings, and the big bang theory to education and economic crisis. Now, all of these presentations may sound very different – but they hold ties to each other in their inspiration and effort. Deriving from the term for the sound of “chit-chat” in Japanese, Pecha Kucha rounds presenters together for the purpose of bringing forward brilliant ideas, giving them the opportunity to network through different social circles and seeing where they lead. The presenters are given twenty slides, twenty seconds for each of those slides, to inspire us; hopefully we'll hold on to pieces of their passions throughout the next presentation, and they'll have stuck with us to the end. One of the presenters that held the strongest stage presence was Dave Olson, really driving the idea that “art makes the future.” The words he spoke could connect with any individual, as he addressed his audience through the fact that it is because “someone like [them] took the time to write [history] down” that made it possible to be remembered, and that aided its significance to others. We were told to “upgrade our heroes,” to not “get precious” with our projects, and to share and be open. In the end, if we couldn't do that, “if [we needed] one person to motivate [us, Dave would] volunteer to be [our] audience.” It takes someone with a vivid personality to be able to write for High Times and The Wall Street Journal. (I may even remember something about Stephen Harper's Bureau calling him about some work when we chatted after the show?) If you want to feel inspired, come along for the ride next year. - Danielle Phelan
