27.04.16
Pecha Kucha Night Dundee Vol 15 took place in the pretty impressive West Ward Works, during the inaugural 4 day Dundee Design Festival.
PKNs run in over 900 cities all over the world and are a quick-fire way of hearing from people across the city and beyond. This PKN will have a bit of a design and collectives twist. Tickets generally go fast.
At Pecha Kucha Night Dundee we have around 12 diverse individuals who speak about whatever they like, and it’s a speedy format – presenters have 20 images and 20 secs per image – so just under 7 mins, which means you hear a lot of interesting, thought-provoking and inspiring stuff with an audience of over 300 people it’s a great night out.
Our regular ‘spread the word’ feature on the night also gave anyone the chance to grab the mic and shout out the events and opportunities they have coming up.
A huge thanks to Ryan McLeod of Agency of None for the great West Ward Works themed PKN design work.
Reif Larsen’s first novel, The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet, was a New York Times bestseller, is currently translated in twenty-seven languages, and was adapted into a movie by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie). His second novel, I Am Radar, was published in 2015. Larsen is currently serving as the International Writer-in-Residence at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He knows several long palindromes. @reiflarsen
Tin Roof are an artists collective in Dundee undergoing major changes. In 2011 Tin Roof set up a studio space and gallery which supported hundreds of artists and now faces immanent closure, but the collective is adapting and seeking out new possibilities for existence, continuing to support grassroots arts in the city. @tinroofdundee
Malath Abbas is an independent game designer, artist and producer working on experimental and meaningful games. Malath is establishing Scotland’s first game collective and co-working space in order to support a community of sustainable independent game makers, and to foster cross sector collaboration. His current work includes digital workshops for young people in partnership with Hot Chocolate Trust as well as Killbox, an online game and interactive installation that critically explores the nature of drone warfare, its complexities and consequences. @maltron3D
Darren Tait is an acrobat, dancer, stuntman, TRX suspension training enthusiast and trainer at CirqusBodyCore. Darren has over 20 years experience in performance, dance, acrobatics and balance and trained at Rambert Ballet School and Bodyworks Cambridge. Now based in Dundee, his career has taken him all over the world, from performing at high profile international events, adverts including Superbowl commercials, making film appearances and he previously performed as a Cirque du Soleil Soloist in Las Vegas for over 4 years. Through Darren’s popular YouTube channel, fans follow his workout methods and as a recent magazine headline pointed out, he is literally ‘Suspended Beyond Belief’.
Matthew Jarron is Curator of the University of Dundee Museum Collections, which includes the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum, the Tayside Medical History Museum and the exhibition programme in the Tower Foyer & Lamb Galleries. He is also secretary of the Abertay Historical Society and author of the newly published ‘Independent & Individualist’ – Art in Dundee 1867-1924. @UoD_Museums
Andy Robertson is the Amplify Project Lead for Hot Chocolate Trust, an innovative youth work charity and hotbed for alternative culture in the centre of Dundee. Hot Chocolate uses creative approaches to support young people on their own terms, build community together, and affect wider change. Hot Chocolate has been described as “strangely educational”, and “one big happy dysfunctional family”. Find out about their work at hotchocolate.org.uk, @HotChocoTrust + @hotchoc_digital.
Kerrie Alexander is a fashion designer and the founder of KerrieALDO, an independent brand specializing in coats and jackets, which are all handmade in Scotland. Kerrie designs and manufactures ready-to-wear, bespoke and one off coat designs here in Dundee with a focus on quality handpicked fabrics, expert craftsmanship and a unique attention to detail. @kerriealdo
Carol Soutar is Creative Director of Jelly & Gin – orchestrating unforgettable edible adventures. Jelly & Gin specialise in sensory experiential eating events that lie at the intersection of food and art. They aim to challenge and delight the senses and to deliver projects where complex ideas shared around food and drink become more accessible, memorable, thought provoking, opinion forming. @carolsoutar + @jellyandgin.
GENERATOR is a collective of artists formed 20 years ago in Dundee. Since 1999 the collective has called an exhibition and events space, just off the Hawkhill, home. In this space, as well as putting on 7 exhibition a year, their newly refurbished Collective Space provide a venue for artistic discussions, talks, film screenings and workshops.@generatorproj
Fraser MacDonald works full time in the arts, is an artist, and is in a band called The Deliberate Crumbs. He is currently living in Huntly, and working with Grampian Hospitals Art Trust. @famacdonald1985
Clare Cooper is one of the group developing The Art of Living Dangerously platform. Addicted to reaching beyond her grasp she has, with a variety of friends and family, set up five other new ventures in the last four years including @cateranscommon, @alythcraft,@vanorascottages, @thsscotland and one that is under wraps but which she hopes might enable her to retire one day. She is proud to be a member of@fleetcollective + @clare_cooper
Jordan Geiger’s work crosses architecture and interaction design, considering implications of human computer interaction for social and environmental issues. He lectures, exhibits and publishes on theoretical research and on his projects, which frequently investigate globalisation’s design problems at many scales. Design research outcomes include buildings, objects, and landscapes proposals; but also written and graphic analyses, and technological investigations.
PECHA KUCHA NIGHT DUNDEE VOL 15
Date: THURS 26th May 2016
Time: 7 – 10pm
Place: West Ward Works, Guthrie Street, Dundee, DD1 5BR
Tickets: £5
Event hashtag: #PKN_DND
Dundee Design Festival
As a UNESCO City of Design, Dundee hosted the first Dundee Design Festival from 25th to 28th May 2016. Within the stunning West Ward Works and other venues across the city, the four-day festival programme includes over 30 exhibitors and more than 30 talks, workshops and performances.
The theme for the first Dundee Design Festival is ‘Place. Work. Folk. Design.’ which explores the potential of design to connect the city’s communities and improve our everyday lives.
Focusing on design for health and wellbeing and including the best of digital design, computer game design, textiles, and architecture, this ground-breaking work examines how design involves everyone, connects everything, and makes anything possible.
The festival is also part of Ignite Dundee, a month-long celebration of culture and creativity across the city, it’s also well worth checking out their programme too.
What is Pecha Kucha Night?
If you’ve not been to Pecha Kucha Night Dundee before, then all we can say is come along and try it out. PKN is part of a massive global network, which you can find out more about here.
Pecha Kucha Nights* were originally started back in 2003 in Tokyo, as an event for creatives to meet, network, and talk about their work in public. Since then Pecha Kucha, meaning ‘chit chat’ in Japanese, has spread internationally running in over 900 cities across the world. The much loved and respected format is relaxed, simple and enjoyable, with something for everyone – presenters have 6 minutes 40 seconds to show and talk through their 20 images, each for just 20 seconds – this keeps things fast and fun!
Pecha Kucha was devised and shared by Klein Dytham architecture. The PKN Dundee event is organised and hosted by Creative Dundee.