Melissa Hope Matlins

I was fortunate enough to be in Tokyo last year for a Pechakucha night, and was introduced to a revolutionary new format for architectural presentations: 20 images, 20 seconds each. The abbreviated pronouncements, and diversity of presenters, are hallmarks of the Pechakucha events, now held around the world, including New York City. Their popularity was evidenced by the line around the block for the Pechakucha night in New York last month.

Eventually the doors of St. Marks Church, where the event was held. were closed in the faces of so many eager young architects. The lucky ones to make it in were treated to a Smorgasbord of presentation styles and designs, sometimes engaging, sometimes inspiring, and sometimes unintelligible. And the unintelligible presentations were not due to the poor acoustics of the chapel space.

Jessica Root from Treehugger was one of the first presenters, delighting the audience with images of earth friendly sex toys, and some solar panels and windmills of course. 2×4’s t-shirt store project was another crowd-pleaser, although someone forgot to remind them (and Enrique Norten) about the 20 slide rule. Or the organizer’s couldn’t find a shepard’s crook to drag them offstage when the time ran out.

Mariah Robertson’s purposefully disheveled and confused performance piece titled “Neuroplasticity & the Perception of Time and Space” was an enjoyable mockery of the time constraints, employing a soundtrack of annoying “slide change” beeps to move everything along. She has also rediscovered the delights of the overhead slide projector - a nice touch that really worked in the space. The prize for most flagrant overuse of archi-speak goes to Andrew Zago from Zago Architecture, for inventing 34 words during the course of his seven minute presentation.

Good things came to those who waited it out, and around ten o’clock Annie Choi, the infamous author of a scathing open letter to architects, took the stage and presented a series of comments and responses to her letter from enemies and fans. A snapshot of one of the criticisms is here (via PechakuchaNY), and more can be found on her website.