Pecha Who? What?

Pecha Kucha.  Pronounced pa-cha-ka-cha.  Hosted by (of course) the Fleming Museum, Pecha Kucha's Burlington chapter is one of the more popular events held at the museum.  Devised by architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham, the format provides each presenter with the opportunity to present 20 slides, for 20 seconds each.  They held their first show in their gallery in Tokyo and the fast-paced artistic style spread like wildfire throughout the world that just cannot seem to slow down.  Despite the fact that the event seems to cater to an American ideal that I don't necessarily support (life in the fast lane) the show itself is simply too cool not appreciate.  

Instead of ten successive rushed presentations, the Burlington Pecha Kucha presenters seemed to slow down time and truly express the art of language.  As English majors, I think we'd all agree that when it comes to writing of any kind it's always quality over quantity.  All my friends are always shocked and outraged when they find out that for their senior theses projects they have to write 50 page research papers while little miss-I-love-to-write only has to bang out a twelve pager or two.  But what it all comes back to is that shorter is often sweeter and Pecha Kucha is the ultimate embodiment of such an ideal.

So many of the presenters were fantastic that I could not pick a single one that was my favorite.  I would attempt to summarize some of them, but they were so good that I feel it would be a disservice to both the artists and their audiences.  So instead, I invite you all to come to our next Pecha Kecha night this coming May (specific dates to come).  And for those of you who are feeling particularly artistic should talk to Chris Dissinger at the Fleming Musuem about presenting.  I think there are still some spots to fill!