Pecha Kucha, The Sound of Chit Chat

Much like speed dating, Pecha Kucha gives a presenter a defined amount of time to tell his/her story, share interests, and show pictures. Pecha Kucha is Japanese for the sound of chit chat, sort of a "sound illustration" for this movement which is now in 172 cities worldwide. This Seattle presentation was sponsored by Artist Trust, a very active organization for support of the arts in the Seattle and surrounding areas. It was held at Ouch My Eye gallery, on 1st St South, right near Quest Field. We arrived in time to find seats, many more people were standing the whole time. There was also an intermission, and the purpose of that time was to connect to other folks attending. The lineup last night was very interesting to me, included two gallery curators or directors, a former professor of ancient music who talked about the operas they produced at UW in full costume with ancient music orchestras they imported from Italy, and a member of a local puppeteer family who talked about his interest and travels to Asia and the large puppet mechanisms he learned about there. The Italian born director of the Bellevue art museum gave us a tour through the museum, guided by a sock monkey with a mustache that looked suspiciously like his own. (Perhaps they are related!?!)

Here are the guidelines for Pecha Kucha as described on the Pecha-Kucha.org site: "Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each - giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show."

This free event is produced by volunteers (Pecha Kuties) and will certainly be repeated. Many of the folks I was privileged to talk with are also planning to present at some future event. Really fun and inspiring!

Lynette Hensley, Associate Broker
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