Stories from Japan ~ Inspiration in 20 seconds at Pecha Kucha Vancouver

April 28, 2011

tags: enoki, gary snyder, global pecha kucha day, inspire japan, inspirejapan, japan, pecha kucha, pknvan, pnkvan, tottori

by Dave O

Global Pecha Kucha Night - Inspire Japan

I was invited to speak at Global Pecha Kucha Day in Vancouver for the worldwide (100 cities or so) “Inspire Japan” event on April 16 2011.

Pecha Kucha Night is a presentation style and a series of lecture events held around the world under license from the originating design firm in Tokyo – in Vancouver by Cause+Affect.

The presentations are exactly 20 slides, switched automatically each :20 seconds. Like speedy lil TED talks with a tendency towards design, architecture, civic planning but speakers include anyone who is doing something interesting really.

I spoke at a Pecha Kucha night in May 2010 at the Vogue Theatre so i knew the pace is hectic and pacing out of your control (notes: Vancouver Observer, Canada Talent, Vancouver is Awesome).

Anyhow, the Inspire Japan day’s speakers were asked to speak more or less on 4 main themes. Here’s the instructions:

“INSPIRE, JAPAN, THE ISSUES, RECOVERY. They could be simply about things that inspire us, or Japan how it has inspired you. Great ideas or solutions that help deal with the issues at hand whether earthquake, tsunami or nuclear – and the road to recovery.”

Here are the slides to peruse at your leisure. Next time you buy me a beer, perhaps i’ll spiel the 20 second annotations to go along with each static montage.

The event was streamed online to coincide with the other events. Watching the Twitter stream to see events roll on and off was pretty neat while riding the SeaBus over – especially from far-flung cities i’ve visited from Osnabrueck to Okayama.

Video of PKN Vancouver + Inspire Japan – Note: i am the 4th speaker.

I was on the roster with 3 others speakers (fewer than a usual PKN).

Pecha Kucha Vancouver Inspire Japan Poster

MICHAEL GREEN • MCFARLANE | GREEN | BIGGAR ARCHITECTURE

LINUS LAM • ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY VANCOUVER

TODD MACALLEN • MOLO DESIGN STUDIO

{ME} DAVE OLSON • STORY MAKER / WRITER / PRODUCER

This was a joy for me to produce from my time spent in Japan what seems like a lifetime ago. I dug deep into my personal archive to find some neat artifacts for my deck and discovered a variety of lost memories and forgotten incidents tucked away in boxes and files.

The event raised money for Architecture for Humanity to build a school in Japan which is great to be a part of, but truthfully (and selfishly) this was a chance for me to release some emotion by flashingback about how traipsing around Japan changed my life in many ways.

I don’t really talk about that time as much as other sojourns and, since the earthquake and resultant chaos, i wanted to express something-somehow with some sort of storymaking. This was a perfect chance so i dug deep.

My pal Daniel Robles gave me a hand building the deck and a load of my pals rolled down to the Cascade Room on Main to lend support and inspiration. See also Naoya Makino’s photoset.

Thanks to @richerd @theeholder @julienemery @donovanpee @kempedmonds @cyn_k @jorobot @kenzoyasauce etc. for support at #pknvan #inspirejapan

Pecha Kucha continues to raise money by marketing an e-book of the poster art from the various Inspire Japan events around the world. Some top-end designers contributed work so bound to be enjoyable for your virtual coffee table.