Concrete Playground

If you haven’t been to a famed Pecha Kucha Night yet — title from the Japanese for ‘chitchat’ — Saturday night is your night. Saturday we are Pecha Kucha-ing not just for the symbiotic development of ideas and love-in of aesthetic wonderment, but also for Haiti.

You’ve heard it said time and again that what the earthquake-levelled country needs now is money. Even in the midst of uselessness, creepy child-grabbers, and post D–Day horror stories that rob you of naiveté, money still helps. Pecha Kucha’s goal is US$1 million to go to Architecture for Humanity and their efforts to rebuild schools, hospitals, public buildings, and homes.

To raise awareness of the ongoing disaster, this adrenalised slide night (featuring presentations by various artists and thought-provokers of 20 images each lasting 20 seconds) is going global. For the first time, all participating cities will join in on the same day, and organisers plan for them to “be connected by a 24-hour PechaKucha presentation WAVE that will gradually move westward city by city, circumnavigating the globe.”

Many presentations will directly address the themes of disaster relief; others will be more tangential. It should be Pecha Kucha’s finest night yet.