Pecha Kucha keeps it short and simple

Presentations have the tendency to drag on, whether due to a lack of structure or a personal penchant for rambling. It isn't unusual for the audience to fall asleep or drift off into individual daydreams - after all, the average attention span can only last a few minutes. At Pecha Kucha Night, this isn't the case. Devised in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham architecture, a patented system ensures that this space for young designers to meet, network and show their work in public is never boring. Should a speaker somehow manage to be boring, the audience will only be tortured for six minutes and 40 seconds. The key is images. Each presenter comes prepared with 20 images, each to be shown for 20 seconds. The presenter can then do whatever they want as the images are projected on a screen, until the last image is shown and the next presenter takes the stage. Today, Pecha Kucha (the Japanese for the sound of "chit chat") is a massive celebration with events all around the world, where creative minds share inspiration. On the first night of its second year in Manila, tickets were quickly sold out. Organized by Idea!s Creatives, the event's presenters included photographers, writers, game designers, a spirit questor, an architect, a t-shirt and apparel graphic designer, a design studio, an animation studio and a director. In a normal forum, 12 speakers would probably need a day or two. But at Pecha Kucha Night, the whole thing only takes around four hours. And 20 seconds is just right for people to see each image without losing interest. Pecha Kucha Night proves that less than seven minutes is plenty.

AJ Dimarucot showed the audience his t-shirt designs, which have made it to great heights - from being worn by Manny Pacquiao (who was standing right next to Steven Seagal) to almost being worn by Michael Jackson (the King of Pop died the day after Dimarucot was told his design would be used) to the cover of a Dell laptop. "I felt that t-shirts became a canvass for my art, my expression. I really wanted to use the whole T-shirt for my canvass. You do something you love, and you just pitch it to them and a year later they might answer you," shared Dimarucot, who had submitted a design to Adidas, and was contacted after one year. While the Dell laptop design bears his signature, his other designs get autographed by other people. He showed pictures of Manny Pacquiao wearing his design, which was originally printed on a boxing ring. "I don't know if I'm more proud of Manny wearing it or that my design is close to Steven Seagall," he laughs. He also showed a design he made for pop punk band Cute is What We Aim For, which has since been bootlegged by apparel boutique People Are People."I guess if you see your t-shirt bootlegged, it's like... 'Yay!'" he said. Then he showed his favorite piece of art, his daughter Gia. "Took about nine months, she's a work in progress," he said, smiling. Irene Sarmiento shared about her ongoing collaborative project, the Open Time Capsule, which she clarifies is not a historic cache of goods, although it does intend to communicate with people in the future, using words and images. The Open Time Capsule focuses on 2010, which she said is "a pretty good year to collect prose, poetry and what not to represent day to day life in 2010, and to dedicate this to children of the future." All sorts of creative output can go into the capsule - visual art, prose, short stories, anecdotes, essays, letters to your children and poetry - and anyone can contribute. "Topics can be anything that's meaningful in 2010," she says, showing samples of what people have contributed so far. There's an essay on Cubao, an attempt to capture culture, and a painting of regret. She shares that what she's interested in is 'storytelling as a means of education.' Sarmiento, who is a Palanca-winning writer and occupational therapist, showed some illustrations from her first book, "Spinning," a tender tribute to children with autism. Wawi Navarozza took the audience into her studio, where "it always begins with disaster." "First you seek and destroy, and then you create," she says of the process of creation. She shares that she questions authorship, and is interested in what's being revealed by not saying anything. "Absence is presence, blank negative space always tells you more. You can communicate with just shutting up," she says, sharing that most of the time she thinks about the emptiness of crowds and the power of who holds the microphone. She shows some of her work - a gallery of failed portraits, a mural called "Not Today," and photos of her band The Late Isabel. "At night I throw it all back into chaos and sing for a band," she says. Bru and Marcushiro of the design studio Electrolychee showed some of their work, which can be found in all sorts of places, gallery exhibits, gig posters, walls, books, backpacks and driveways. Electrolychee has done art for a long list of clients including Nike, Unilever, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Smart Communications, Nokia, Ayala Foundation, Universal Records, Terno Recordings, Details Trading, Bigfish Productions, Human, Bratpack, Grab Jeans, Shu Uemura and Pony. They share that the creative juices don't always flow. But inspiration is everywhere, and "you can even make something out of things you don't like," they said, showing drawings that are based on the dislike for sports. They also showed the logo for the band Bagetsafonik, which "captures how the band sounds, which is hard to describe," they told the audience. Carl Javier showed several versions of himself - from the obligatory childhood snapshot to a clay sculpture of himself, by Uly Veloso. He talked about his bread and butter - being a literary mercenary, and his new book, "The Kobayashi Maru of Love," which he came up with after his girlfriend dumped him. "I started dating and tried to figure things out. Over the course of 8 months or so I managed to write so many words about it," he said. He showed a photo of his first book, "And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth," which was published by Milflores. "I'm on the same shelf as Nick Joaquin and I'm above F. Sionil Jose," he said, adding that as much as he loved the first book, he was wondering if he could do something else. "What does it take to be an independent publisher?" he asks, as an image of 500 peso bills shows on the screen. "This is it. So I took all of my savings and decided I would become an independent publisher." He shares that they got to play around with things that mainstream publishers aren't willing to do. "In doing so I think we're pushing literature in a different direction," he said, moving on to literary merchandise. He shows an image of himself in the likeness of Che Guevarra. "Maybe they'll wear a shirt of me even if they don't know who I am,' he said. Peachie Dioquino-Valera shares her experiences as a spirit questor and shows pictures of her runes, crystals, wands and tarot cards. "No we're not the ghostbusters," she begins, then proceeds to explain the nature of work for a spirit questor. She shows a photo of the Spirit Questor's founder Tony Perez, and explains how tarot card readings work. "Your subconscious chooses the card, and we just interpret it for you," she said. Mark Meily has the audience laughing uncontrollably with his presentation on the NASA, The Nora Aunor School of Acting. His already funny illustrations of NASA techniques on how to win an acting award were made even funnier by his demonstrations. He describes the moment that usually follows the character's discovery of bad news. He says it is characterized by syllabication (when the characters line is divided into seven syllables, for example, "My-bro-ther-is-not-a-pig" or "Hi-rap-na-hi-rap-na-'ko") and hagulgulgul (same as syllabication, but only the last syllable is drawn out, as in "Hirap na hirap na ko-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh") - both of which are accompanied by "the nod," an emphatic movement of the head to make the moment even more, well, momentous. Meily showed the audience gestures like the "finger-point-heart," "squeezing the lemons," and "the swallow," which must be done three times. "Ang shooing the fly ay ginagawa kapag hindi matanggap ng character ang balitang narinig niya," he said. Meily also talks about "The Best Friend" and "The Doctor" who always say "Ginawa na ho namin ang buo naming makakaya. Ipagpasa-Diyos na natin ang lahat," "the Matrona" whose chin must always be turned up, the impending doom of a young girl who is shown ironing, and other film cliches. He ended his talk with a quote from his mentor, guide and inspiration, "Life is acting. Acting is life." He tells the audience that the saying is actually his, and the laughter goes on even as he takes his seat. Niña Terol-Zialcita, accompanied by her husband Paul with music played on a 5-gallon water bottle, shows images from their travels in Europe and Asia. "What do people think of when they're thirty-five thousand feet above the ground? What do you think of?" she asks. "Life becomes a crazy series of cacophonic uncoordinated movements and you have to stop yourself and ask do you really know where you're going?" "There is beauty everywhere. Do you see it?" she asks. "Everything comes from nothing, even the most magnificent of structures." Paulo Alcarazen condensed a hundred years in his presentation of Manila and how it developed, or rather, didn't develop. The audience erupts into laughter as the architect and editor-in-chief of BluPrint shows a photo captioned as 'SWAT 1941.' "This shows the Philippine Constabulary in 1941, probably the last time our police and armed forces were completely equipped. Note the gas masks and the state of the art pit helmets," he said. "Malls spell the death of public plazas and parks. We have struggled to rebuild the institutions needed to develop a strong nation," he said between photographs of the Luneta park and Mall of Asia. "Our government is a structure of a capitol metropolis which has grown without order, without a center, and without a soul. Citizens just barely survive in spite of crime, floods, brownouts, inept policemen, pollution, politics and Kris Aquino." He ends by saying that city planning, or any other kind of planning is non-existent. "Everybody wants to be the boss, but no one wants to be held accountable for anything. So what are our marching orders now?" he asks. Mark Nicdao shows his photographs, sometimes serendipitous, sometimes downright amazing. He shows 'The saddest girl below the Eiffel tower,' a family with a uniform expression, and a couple kissing. "I don't know if they saw me, they started kissing, and I took photos. Then the guy approached me, akala ko hahampasin 'yung camera sa'kin. He gave me his number and his e-mail and asked me if I could give them copies because they just got engaged," he said, adding that he lost the guy's card. "I would always carry my camera. I would just click. I love accidents," he said. "It's one of those photographs na parang 'Wow, God loves me,'" he said as a photo of a crow landing on a fountain flashes on the screen. Tuldok Animation Studios shared pictures of their life without an office, and talked about the difficulty of finding sponsors. "What sets us apart, what makes us unique, it's nothing and everything. Basically it's sharing the dream, our belief that we can do something great when we work together," they said while showing images from some of their projects: their first film, Libingan, a 20-minute film directed by Ramon Del Prado; Pasintabi, a work in progress, and their workshop, From Lines to Life: An Introduction to Animation. Phillip Cheang of By Implication talked about developing Wildfire, the group's winning entry to the 2010 Microsoft Imagine Cup, an international technology competition. The game is inspired by the Filipino bayanihan spirit as seen after last year's typhoon Ondoy. "While it was terrible and devastating it also triggered one of the most nationalistic displays of volunteerism," he said. The idea is you play this guy who goes around the city and talks to people, making them aware of the problems in the city. "The message would sort of spread, hence Wildfire," he said. By Implication represented the country in a similar software design competition last year in Egypt, but they did not win thus, they decided to do something closer to their hearts - games. "Games are often seen as some sort of juvenile escapism, but if you look at other mediums like books, comics, film, theater, they were not always regarded with the same level of esteem and respect as they are today," he said. "Games are actually a very powerful medium. more than just being interactive, they provide a vicarious experience in a very visceral manner." He quotes Gandhi, "Be the change you want to see in the world. As aspiring game designers, I think were trying to do our part in this." - GMANews.TV The next Pecha Kucha Night is on December 1.