Pecha Kucha & New Projects

Pecha Kucha - 19th Jan, 2011
First time presenting at Pecha Kucha and what a hoot it was! Presenters spoke about everything from initiatives in art, to the current state of the music business, the iconic monobloc chair, the art of sketching, the unique dubai benches project and very creative photography projects.


The Presenters:
Omar Jaramillo Traverso, an architect, an artist and part of the Urban Sketchers network - www.omar-jaramillo.de andwww.flickr.com/photos/omarpaint
Arnaud Humbert - Photographer - www.arnaudhumbert.com
Joshua F. Williams - Music producer, recording engineer and mixer - myspace.com/joshuawilliams , http://twitter.com/#!/record_pro
Mark Pilkington, a professor at the American University of Sharjah and a photographer - mpilkington @ aus.edu
Laura Egerton from Art Dubai/ Abraaj Capital Art Prize - www.artdubai.ae
Melina Mitri - PR & Marketing Exec. from funky upscale boutique S*uce - http://sauceloves.com/benches/, http://www.shopatsauce.com/
Hattie Bowering -  http://twitter.com/#!/hattiebowering
Jill Hoyle - Tashkeel - www.tashkeel.org
Gayathri Krishnan and Reiner Erlings (Producer/Songwriter and the Co-Musical Director of Movement) - http://twitter.com/#!
/thenightreiner
http://twitter.com/#!/GayathriMuses
(visit http://www.theculturist.com/home/pecha-kucha-dubai-on-19th-jan-2011.html for a detailed insight into all the presentations)


The day of...

A Few Glimpses of the Presentation Slides: Created by Reiner Erlings and Gayathri Krishnan
Video of the presentation is posted on the sidebar on the right.

The Dubai Benches Project: 

The best books read, the sweetest letters written, the smallest kisses planted, the biggest laughs laughed, have all happened on benches in various corners of the world. Whether we use it as a place to relax as you watch your kids play with bubbles, profess your love, sketch a stranger, drink some hot chocolate while you wait for the bus or just sit down to tie your shoe laces, the bench always cuts you some slack and gives you a moment. 


Why all the romanticizing of the bench? Well, popular shopping haunt S*uce are launching their latest community initiative, The Dubai Benches Project. It aims to increase the number of benches in Dubai so that people here can celebrate the stories told, the lives lived and the moments shared on benches.


How quaint and charming is that?! When I heard about this project from Melina and got some more info on it through her quirky presentation at Pecha Kucha last night, I immediately signed up to contribute to the cause. Different ways of contributing: Send in - 

1.       Photos  of your favourite bench (in Dubai or anywhere else in the world) and why you
         like it.
2.       Photos of a candid moment caught on a bench
3.       Photos of a space or area in Dubai where there should be a bench but isn’t.. (by the sea,     
         in a mall, in a park, by the road etc.)
4.       Any story or anecdote about something that happened on a bench
5.       Anything wonderful or inspirational like a sketch of a bench, a quote, a poem  … etc


The Contribution: 
As basic as a bench,  I'm working on a video that'll have me playing a song on my favourite bench in Dubai. 


Upcoming posts: 
Working on a duet with Tim Hassall in his home studio, Building props for a photo shoot on a shoe-string budget and Building a new and improved press kit. 

What's The Haps?!

As the new year rolled in, the list-making, plan-hatching and internal pep-talking commenced in full-swing and I'm happy to report that the year is off to a great start. I will update you on upcoming shows, tours, post videos and podcasts shortly and keep you up to date with all the musical shenanigans. To that end, here's a little a nugget of what I'm working on currently.


Pecha Kucha on the 19th of Jan, 2011 - Third Line Gallery, Al Quoz, Dubai.

For the uninitiated, Pecha Kucha (usually pronounced in three syllables as "pe-chak-cha") is a cult event following a very simple presentation format where you showcase a certain (mostly creative) project you're working on, within the framework of 20 images, each only lasting 20 seconds. The images forward automatically and you talk during the slide show, giving the audience a quick yet insightful glimpse into whatever it is you've chosen to speak on. 
For this edition of Pecha Kucha, I've teamed up with Reiner Erlings (Producer/Songwriter & Co-Musical Director of 'Movement') to do a live demonstration of the creative process of writing music for a 60-piece orchestra. We're taking one of my songs, 'Sinking Superhero,' deconstructing it by breaking it down to its bare bones - the main guitar riff, the melody and the chorus - which I will be playing live and then demoing how we built a body for this song to exist within, piece by piece. This particular song when rearranged, keeping in mind an orchestra, lent itself very graciously to an interplay between live orchestration, electronic percussion and sound design. This presentation will bring to light all those elements, and touch upon the cross-pollination of contemporary and classical music which is the nucleus of 'Movement.' 


Pecha Kucha is basically creativity central, so if you're looking to scope out the creative scene here and all the cool freaks then definitely make your way to the Third Line Gallery on the 19th of Jan. For more info just click http://www.pecha-kucha.org/night/dubai/
And yes, important detail - it's FREE. 


Vblog Series - Meeting the Creatives. 
One of the main objectives of Behind The Pop Filter, besides being a place to keep records of different projects I'm working on, is to bring to the forefront the people who actively give to the creative scene here. Yes, all 7 of them. (joke.)
Anyway, to that end I've been busy doing video interviews with musicians, artists, journalists, gallerinas all speaking about being creative and the opportunities that have come their way by just living in this little hamlet of ours. 
First of that video series goes up on Saturday the 14th of Jan.  
Stay Tuned.