24 May 2012
A hugely successful PechaKucha for Japan
Categorised under: Events
Yesterday’s ‘PechaKucha for Japan’ event at Logan Hall, Institute of Education brought together an exciting, talented and eclectic mix of presenters and an audience of 500, according to the host and additional speaker for the evening, Michael Johnson (johnson banks). The event raised over £2,000 from ticket sales alone. Through ‘Creatives Unite for Japan’, all profits from the evening will be donated to the ASHINAGA organisation to help provide Japanese orphans with educational and emotionalsupport.
The now world-famous 20×20 PechaKucha involves each speaker having 20 slides and speaking for 20 seconds about each slide before it moves on – a total of six minutes and 40 seconds. PechaKucha was invented by the renowned Tokyo-based architects Klein Dytham.
What all speakers had in common was a huge connection with and affection for Japan. Michael Johnson spoke about his love of Japanese graphic design, of funny English usage as in the drink Pocari Sweat and his work on incorporating the Latin alphabet reading into ‘katakana’ script. Having started off equating Japan with Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner at the beginning of his career, he gradually became enthused with Akira Kurosawa’s take on Japan and, ultimately, the beauty of Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story. Mark Dytham was unable to fly over from Tokyo to join the event in person but sent over his set of slides and presentation, talking about the development of PechaKucha since its inception in 2003. It now seems to be the largest physical social network for creatives. ‘We’ve all been inspired by Japan, ‘ he said, ‘and now we want to inspire Japan back.’ Andy Altmann (Why Not Associates) spoke about his sheer love of Japanese tin toys and Japanese taxis with their slightly anomalous crocheted seat covers. Chris Arning (Creative Semiotics UK) gave a true whistlestop tour of what he adores about Japan including Japanese calligraphy, Ritsurin Park in Shikoku and the logo for the Nagano 1998 Winter Olympics. Michael Marriott could not disguise his passion for Japanese kitchen ware, tools and knives and his obsession with the shop Tokyu Hands which he described as a ‘psychedelic Woolworths’. He thinks nothing of spending eight hours inside one of these – heaven for an extreme DIY enthusiast. The product designer, David Keech (keechdesign) captivated the audience by talking of his youthful love of ‘Tamiya’ toys and working for Yamaha in Shizuoka where, coincidentally, Tamiya Toys is also based. Keech was the first non-Japanese to join Yamaha’s creative team and while in Japan he joined a couple of music groups and practised kendo. This jazz player manqué finished by playing a tune on his Yamaha black trombone. Fred Deakin (co-founder of Airside and member of Lemon Jelly) spoke about sweet Japanese characters such as Totoro but also mentioned the dark side to ‘kawaii’. His ‘humping dog’ USB stick which became a great hit in Japan just about summed this up. Kathryn Findlay (Ushida Findlay) spent 20 years in Japan and spoke about the space and silence that can also be found there. Her presentation revolved around a beautiful sketch book of scenes of Tsukiji fish market given to her by a student. Helen McCarthy ably delivered a digested history of manga at great speed. She described manga as packs of hopes, dreams and fears. According to Helen, an English cartoonist by the name of Charles Wirgman (1832-1891) invented manga. He arrived in Japan in 1861, staying there until his death. He taught European painting to the Japanese and was the creator of Japan Punch, which heralded contemporary manga. Skilfully managing to speak for more than the allotted six minutes, Helen also managed to talk about Osamu Tezuka, the ‘god of manga’ and his influence on contemporary artists such as Takashi Murakami. The fashion designer Ryohei Kawanishi spoke about being anti-fashion and taking inspiration from Marcel Duchamp. Kawanishi’s memorable 2011 graduation collection was inspired by the Arab spring. In this work he managed to convey the oppression and conflict that is found in the Middle East. Another collection of his, Entropy, was displayed to great acclaim at this year’s inaugural London International Fashion Showcase and referenced Comme des Garçons’ 1982 collection (clothes full of holes suggesting a post-holocaust state). Kawanishi’s Entropy itself is an allusion to the post-Fukushima reality. Passionate about social issues, he is about to embark on a series of fashion workshops at schools in Fukushima and in this way hopes to bring the students some hope and relief. Adam Torel, owner of Third Window Films, spoke with great delight about his love of Seijun Suzuki’s oeuvre and modern Japanese films such as Sawako Decides, Love Exposure and Fine, Totally Fine. He entertained the audience with a series of his favourite film clips. The evening’s last speaker was Timon Screech, Professor of the History of Art at SOAS,University of London. He started by saying that knowing contemporary Japan is not to know the whole thing and regaled the audience by talking about art in the Edo period (1603–1868), referring to the lovely screens inside Nijo Castle in Kyoto and the floating world ‘ukiyo-e’ or woodblock prints by artists including Hokusai and Harunobu Suzuki. Screech also touched on a specialist subject of his, ‘shunga’ prints, which are overtly erotic. The evening ended to rapturous applause.