Yasmin Ali

PechaKucha ‘Hidden Heroes’

September 2013, Edinburgh, Vol. 24

PechaKucha is Japanese for chitchat, and is a simple 20/20 formula reliant on creatives showing 20 slides, each for up to approximately 20 seconds, for a brief and succinct tour of their work and/or interests and inspirations. The presentation concept Architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham devised the presentation concept, launching the first PechaKucha Night (PKN) in Tokyo in early 2003. Ten years later, they continue to support the Tokyo PKN network now that the format has been continued globally.

This edition, Edinburgh’s Volume 24, brings together ten locals all with a connection to the city, and to diverse creative pursuits as distant as CGI, painting, photography, gardening and writing. Not all presentations were immediately recognisable by the common theme of ‘Hidden Heroes’, but strands of these could be discerned from many of the talks, even if only tenuously in some.

Memorable talks included the humour injected by artist Emily Inglis dry comparison of post-recession Edinburgh suburb Gogarburn (home of the tram depot and RBS offices), to a village in a struggling developing country. Personal and personably delivered were slideshows by artist Rabiya Choudhry and IT expert Kate Ho. Choudhry spoke of her inspiration from her family, including her late grandmother who spoke of possession by holy spirits or Jinn (Arabic: lit. genie) who is a key influence on her current and forthcoming work. Ho gave an upbeat talk about her ’30 things to do before you’re 30’, which included a few surprises such as extreme ironing as a sporting pursuit and its subsequent press attention.

In contrast, photographer Peter Dibdin’s Southside photography project used Hidden Heroes as its subject matter of sorts, focusing on portraiture of community members of the local area. Artist Keith Harman’s talk included description (and testing) of his heroic idea of buying up variants of famous gallery spaces domain names and redirecting these to his own site, and using this as a platform to publicise emerging artists.

Edinburgh has been hosting PKN’s since May 2007, and since December 2009 these have been held at Inspace, in conjunction with New Media Scotland. This edition of PechaKucha ended with the sad news that the next edition (Vol. 25, December 2013), may be the last at New Media Scotland’s current home at Inspace, which is a well-equipped and versatile venue nestled in the middle of the main campus at Edinburgh University.