PechaKucha Night hails from Tokyo, where it was created in 2003 as a gathering for young artists and designers with innovative ideas to share with each other. The name in Japanese means “chit chat” and PechaKucha speakers are asked to create short presentations based on a 20 x 20 format of 20 powerpoint images that are shown for a mere 20 seconds each. Today the event has turned into a global phenomenon of interesting presentations that go far beyond the topic of design.
Held in 539 cities worldwide, including Tijuana, San Jose, Tokyo, Cape Town, Luxembourg, and Manchester, PechaKucha covers topics as varied as the joys of skateboarding, Indonesian comics, lessons from super villains, and something called “scrapture” just to name a few.
We owe it to the organizer of PechaKucha Bangkok Chapter, Scott Coates who was inspired by a session he experienced in Hawaii and took it upon himself to revive the event in Bangkok. The re-launch event was the first PechaKucha Night in Bangkok since 2008 and it attracted a crowd of over a hundred people with nine presenters at The Nest rooftop venue of Le Fenix hotel in Sukhumvit 11.
One of the interesting speakers of the night was Pan Pan Narkprasert who spoke on the topic of “Pangina Heal’s Guide to Waacking.” The local dance choreographer and self-proclaimed Only Waacking Drag Queen in Thailand has been making headlines in various publications including the Bangkok Post’s Guru Magazine where Miss Pangina graced the cover wearing a stunning white afro wig with one leg lifted straight in the air. During Pan Pan’s presentation at PechaKucha we learned the ins and outs of what the art of waacking actually means, its origins and similarities to vogueing, and even a few makeup tips for men who want to transform themselves into women. Although we don’t plan on waacking, which can sometimes consist of flailing arms in a helicopter like way above your head, or kicking your legs up into air just to fall onto the ground in a painful split, it was very interesting to get this insider perspective on the art.
We also learned about the mentality that dancers can have when “battling” with each other in competitions where they have to intimidate their opponents and fight to win, as Miss Pangina explained.
Just so you get an idea of what the presentations are like at PechaKucha here’s a full list of the speakers and their topics from that event:
1) Greg Jorgensen: Exploring Bangkok by Bike
2) Oraya Sutrabutr: Quiet Bangkok – a Contradiction in Terms?
3) Alysha Coulson: Volunteering at Camillian Home Bangkok
4) Pan Pan Narkprasert: Pangina Heal’s Guide to Waacking
5) Loven Ramos: STREETBOUND – art beyond the galleries and poetry beyond the books
6) Susan Dustin: Love & Laughter
7) Derek Van Pelt: Virtual Private Networks
8 ) Peter Harper: Harper Architecture + design ……….form follows feeling
9) Prae Sunantaraks: What Eye See in Bangkok
The next PechaKucha event will be in late September (venue/speakers to be announced in late August). PechaKucha is looking for volunteers to help set up, run the event, take photos and video. Those who are interested in volunteering can email: pechakuchabangkok@gmail.com
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