Peter's Photo Blog

Last Thursday, October 25th I had the honor of participating in Pecha Kucha night Austin. It was awesome - the audience was truely appreciative and we got lots of positive feedback. I think we were the hit of the night and we dropped some knowledge as well. I estimate that 200+ people were listening to our presentation - the largest public speaking gig I've ever done in a long time.

Pecha Kucha is essentially a digital art night where multiple presenters show 20 powerpoint slides for 20 seconds each on any topic. Each presentation only lasts 6 minutes and 40 seconds so everything is quick and to the point because slides roll by fast. I enjoyed the format because the quick pace keeps things lively and the large number of presenters keeps things eclectic and varied.

Pecha Kucha started in Tokyo, Japan and has spread around the world as a kind of underground movement. More Pecha Kucha info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecha_Kucha
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-09/st_pechakucha

This time around in the Austin Pecha Kucha, the presenters were mostly architects and designers, but they had an embroiderer and musicians as well. My presentation was about bboying (aka breakdance) and was based on my bboy photos from the past 3-4 years with a live performance by the bboys of Bboy City. I wrote up a script and timed the presentation so that the dancers would be doing moves similar to the moves captured in the photos of each slide throughout the presentation. I also gave an intro to bboying and hip hop culture which was well recieved but I had to raise my voice over the screams and cheers the dancers were getting. It was crazy fun. Be sure to check out the videos at the bottom of this entry.

I'll be posting the script and photos from the presentation sometime soon.

UPDATE 11-4-07 - Presentation is posted here: http://www.supertsai.com/photo/PKN/PKN00.html

For now, enjoy photos from the night of the presentation:

Me giving the history of bboying at the beginning of the presentation. The image on screen is of a hip hop culture stamp from the US Postal Service.

The Bboy City Bboys - Denise and Santos. The image on the screen is of powermoves, specifically airflares.

D-nice doing some footwork.

Santos demonstrating some awesome freezes.

The crowd that night - it was pretty packed!

The event was at Design Within Reach - a furniture studio. It was very modern inside.

Explaining and demonstrating Toprock to the crowd.

demonstrating some freezes.