A Pecha Kucha (Japanese for “chit-chat”) is a design exercise in which participants deliver concise presentations intended to grab the attention of an audience, convey key information, and permit a group to share ideas quickly.
In a “proper” Pecha Kucha, each participant shows 20 slides for 20 seconds each. We’re doing a shorter variation on the format—just four slides each!—designed to interrogate the relationship between Design & the Anthropocene.
Participation will be limited to 30 people—first come, first serve! The final submission deadline is Sunday, November 29, 11:59PM Tuesday, December 1, 11:59PM.
Design & the Anthropocene Pecha Kucha, Step-by-Step
Step 1: Don’t Panic. This isn’t meant to be rigorous. Like many design exercises, it’s designed to jump-start a conversation by approaching a topic quickly and laterally.
Step 2: Think of four responses to the following question:
What is a key ingredient required for design in the Anthropocene?
We’re going to make some metaphorical “meals” from these ingredients in the follow-up Design Charrette, as a way to illustrate and accelerate our collective understanding of these concepts.
Step 3: What? What do you mean “ingredients”? Give me an example.
One of my research interests is in how open access to information can help us respond to the design needs of diverse communities. I might choose ingredients like: big data, analytical tools, freedom of information, and diversity.
Step 4: How do I know I have the right ingredients?
Don’t worry about it. Simply pick four that are important to you and the work that you do. The purpose of the exercise is to bring your ingredients into conversation with everyone else’s.
Step 5: OK. I’ve got it. What next?
Easy. Find four images that represent these ingredients. A Google image search is a good place to start. Try to pick images that are easy to identify. There are no file type restrictions—we can use pretty much anything—but high-resolution JPEG files will work best.
Step 6: How am I going to deliver my slides?
We’re going to do it for you! Simply send us the four ingredients in text and image and we’ll prepare a collective slide deck. Each slide will show your image and the associated title. (We’re also going to use the deck in the Design Charrette.)
Please send a single email to DesignAnthropocene@gmail.com that contains the following:
- Four ingredients in the body of the email, written in the order you’d like them presented (e.g. 1: big data, etc.)
- Four attached images—one per ingredient (e.g. 1_bigdata.jpg, etc.)
Participation will be limited to 30 people—first come, first serve! The final submission deadline is Sunday, November 29, 11:59PM.
Step 6: What’s going to happen on December 4 at 11AM ?
The Pecha Kucha event will look like this: each participant will have 30 seconds per slide (2:00 total) to elaborate on each ingredient in a sentence or two. The slides will proceed automatically. The purpose of your presentation is to introduce us to your essential ingredients for design in the Anthropocene.
Step 7: Is this going to be stressful?
Absolutely not! If this is the first time you’ve ever participated in a design exercise, we promise that it will be fun and informative. We hope that all conference attendees will choose to participate in the Pecha Kucha. Let us know at DesignAnthropocene@gmail.com if you have any questions or concerns.