Friday, March 28, 2014

Now for Something Completely Different: PechaKucha Night Review

Hello everyone, I hope you've had a great week and are looking forward to an even better weekend. Despite really liking the day job, I'm looking forward to having a couple days for a little me time. Hopefully I'll get more of this paper stuff written and finally get back to printmaking! I've been missing it something fierce.

This blog is usually about me, my misadventures, and printmaking. Hell, "misadventures" and "Wade" are the title of the blog, so it makes sense really. But today I'm doing something a little different. I'm not going to talk about myself (as much). Instead I'm going to give you a little review of last night's PechaKucha at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport. What is PechaKucha besides something that I have trouble prounouncing? (Peach-uh-Koot-cha? Pitch-uh-Kuh-cha?)

Pikachu, I choose you!
Image from http://www.pokemon.com
Also, I totally don't own the character, Nintendo does. I wish I did though.
So what is PechaKucha? Without going into too much detail or history, it's a pretty awesome idea. Okay, a little more detail and history then... It started in February 2003 in Tokyo. Ah Japan, Pikachu is pleased. Anyway, it began as an event for architects to get together, network, and show each other what they had been working on, all in a public forum. It's evolved since then (see what I did there?), and in its present form it isn't just for architects. It's for everyone. If you're passionate about something, you can talk about it, but you have to talk about it in a certain format. You get to show twenty pictures, but you only get to talk about each image for twenty seconds, for a total of six minutes and forty seconds. No questions during the presentation, but everybody gets to hang out afterwards and make connections with people. It's pretty awesome, and if you want more information you can always check out www.PechaKucha.org as well as attending one in your area if you can!

So Clarissa and I decided to go check this out, and we had a great time. What did we see? The first gentleman up was Dave from the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum in Walcott, Iowa with a presentation titled, "Antique Trucks Are Cool." He showed us some beautifully restored trucks, and gave us some great info about the museum which we will be sure to check out sometime. Next up was Susan, with a presentation on Book Arts. I assumed that what she did was make books, and I suppose that's true. Those books, however, aren't like the ones on my shelf; instead they take the form of interactive sculpture. Next up was a woman named Janet who discussed her love of crocheting in a presentation titled, "Beyond the Granny Square." She makes interesting afghans for friends and family, and also some funny hats that gave us a chuckle.

Stephanie and Cole from the local theatre group The Prenzie Players, discussed their upcoming show Lear, a gender-swapped production of Shakespeare's King Lear. This isn't their first Shakespeare production, and their stage images looked amazing, so we may try to check out the upcoming performances during the first few weeks of April, and I hope a lot of people do. Then an art professor named Anna took the microphone and told us about how "A Drawing May Save Your Life." This took many forms, from POWs using art to stay connected to their humanity or maps showing the safe route to distant locations. Also, fun fact, medical students who take drawing classes are better at diagnostic medicine! After Anna, Randy of Otherography.com told us about how he uses archaic photo processes, specifically the Van Dyke Brown process, to create stunning pictures. I very much enjoyed the examples that he showed us; images such as a cow wishing it could play a piano brought a smile to my face. If you have an opportunity to check out his work, I would definitely recommend doing so.

Following Randy, Franco told us about his recently released book Tracks on Damp Sand, and read us an excerpt detailing the trials of a pair of bald eagles constructing a nest and raising their first hatchling. Then Ann told us about Project Renewal, a non-profit organization that works with children, providing them with a range of educational and recreational activities in a safe environment. They're doing some great work with kids, and with my mom working so closely with children, it always touches my heart to see the lives of kids made a little better. Closing out the evening was Clarissa's friend Michelle from Indigo Yoga presenting "Art in Motion." I'm used to seeing yoga poses. They happen pretty much non-stop around the apartment, but it was intriguing to see imagery of yoga poses done amid paintings, sculptures, and galleries, while the yogi in the images was running through a series of poses live to music. All of these presentations were interesting and I could go into much more elaborate detail on all of them, but I won't.
Pikachu grows weary of words.
Again, image from http://www.pokemon.com
And Nintendo still owns the character
What I will tell you is that it was an awesome way to spend the evening. Were all of the topics something that I'm really into and passionate about? No, but the thing is that someone obviously is passionate about these things, and I'm passionate about people doing things that they're passionate about. So maybe all these things weren't my particular cup of tea or brand of vodka, it was still interesting to hear how and why the people that presented were passionate about their topic. I will definitely be attending the next one. That's right, the Figge hosts these things monthly! If you're nearby, you should give it a whirl. If you're far away, you should see if there is something like this close to you. Either way, you should give people a chance to tell you what makes their heart go pitter patter. It may not be what gets you going, but it makes for an interesting night and you may make a new friend in the process.

I want to know what you're passionate about. Hit me up in the comments section or tell me on twitter (@CaptGam). I'm out for now, but I promise I'll be back with more printmaking as soon as possible! Have a fantastic weekend everybody.








1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the lovely summary and commentary!!!!! We couldn't have said it better. Hope to see you back again at the Figge!

    ReplyDelete