Photo by Jim Caldwell, Courtesy Buffalo Bayou Partnership & Minetta Brook. (On-screen image from James Bennings' Ten Skies, 2004, 16mm, color, 109 min.”)
Retention ponds masquerading as water features, custom bobble-heads and PEZ dispensers, chopper bikes, drunk mellow mice and junkyard drive-ins—where could you have found these things together? At Houston’s second Pecha Kucha, which took place last Thursday.
Over 200 people filled the cavernous five-story atrium in the University of Houston College of Architecture building to hear six-minute-and-forty-second-long presentations by eleven different thinkers working in Houston. (Read about the first Houston Pecha Kucha and an explanation of the events’ form.)
Organized by Tony Medrano and hosted by University of Houston’s Architecture Alumni Association, “Pecha Kucha Houston - Volume 2” was designed to produce unexpected connections and new collaborations across disciplines while mapping the layered geographies of Houston, a city which refuses fixed definitions.
Photo by Tish Stringer. Image from Derek Rankins’ slide show.
One confluence occurred between the work of photographer Derek Rankins and industrial designer Brenden Macaluso. Macaluso referred to the four “life stages” of most commercial objects/products: design, manufacture, use, and discard. By adding more thought and deliberation to the design process, he claimed that we can manufacture more efficient and longer-lasting products using less harmful and less wasteful processes. Rankins, on the other hand, takes detailed close-up photographs of discarded disposable products which he finds in gutters and parking lots, which sort of begs the question, if Macaluso had his way, what would Rankins photograph?
Abram VanElswyk made a case for smarter suburban design by replicating successful “inner loop” strategies in new developments outside of Beltway 8. Some of the changes he advocated for are: more garage apartments, more use of alley-accessed garages, enclosed front yards, and dense retail spaces which are accessible to pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists alike. These changes will create what he refers to as “horizontal mixed-use” development for future suburban neighborhoods.
Slide from Abram VanElswyk’s presentation.
Andrea Grover shared her experience showing cinema in unexpected places. Her screenings have occurred in an old church, an auto parts junkyard, floating on the bayou (see lead photo above), in Jacuzzis, and on lawns. She works in collaboration with many civic groups such as the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, the Menil Collection, and the Center for Land Use Interpretation to produce events which were often site-specific recontextualizations of local history. Her multi-media, multi-sensory events take films outside of the traditional exhibition space yet maintain the intimate collective experience of the cinema in new, unexpected, and often delightful ways.
David Morris, billed as a “programmer/artist,” combined 3-D printing technology with the retro-cool crafting movement to speak about a brave new world of DIY “personal manufacturing.” Using 3-D scanners, open source software, and 3-D printers, we will democratize the tools of design and production and have the capabilities to unfold, copy, tweak, and produce all manner of household goods, even “custom PEZ dispensers and bobble-heads.” (Morris also organizes a 3D Camp in Houston. Check their website for upcoming dates.)
Artists and academics are accustomed to presenting to an audience of their peers. At Pecha Kucha, however, they can not assume any prior knowledge of the subject on the part of the diverse audience. This fact along with the 400-second length (20 slides at 20 seconds each) of the presentations creates an atmosphere for broadly understandable and relatable information. A new “mix of show-and-tell, open-mike night and happy hour” sweeping the world—Pecha Kucha happens in more than 200 cities around the world—it seems to be a form well-suited for a YouTube generation accustomed to bite-size information delivery.
Pecha Kucha Houston Volume 3 will be coming up within a few months. Their website will list upcoming events.
