Pecha Kucha Dubai is back with its 9th edition this week. I've missed the last few editions of Pecha Kucha, so I'm really looking forward to this one.

To those that are new to Pecha Kucha, it follows a 20x20 format which allows each presenter to showcase 20 images – each shown for exactly 20 seconds. This gives the presenter 6 minutes and 40 seconds before switching over to the next participant. Originating in Japan, Pecha Kucha is Japanese for "chatter" and was devised and shared by Klein Dytham architecture.

Event details:
Date: Wednesday, 19th January
Location: The Third Line, Al Quoz (location map)
Phone: +971 4 341 1367
Time: 8.20pm. It starts on time, so don't be late.
Free entry.

Here's the list of presenters:

1. Omar Jaramillo Traverso, an architect, an artist and part of the Urban Sketchers network, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising the artistic, storytelling and educational value of location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location where they live and travel. Omar will show some of his sketches and talk about his experience of sketching in the UAE.
You can find his work here: www.omar-jaramillo.de and www.flickr.com/photos/omarpaint

2. Arnaud Humbert - Photographer - www.arnaudhumbert.com
The title of his presentation is Abstraction & Reality: When Digital Art is committed to raising sustainable development consciousness in the UAE.

At the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the UAE National Day in 2011, Arnaud will present a project proposal to associate the UAE and more specifically Dubai to a world-class event that will associate the Emirate to the finest of art and culture, the heart of sustainable development awareness, and state-of-the-art digital technology.

"Around an iconic location of Dubai, and through an innovative scenic installation mixing giant photo projections, oriental-related music and renowned artists from all over the world, Abstraction and Reality wants to promote a 'living' art involved on sustainable development issues, and to support the key role of creation and culture in raising consciousness and in ongoing changes. Sustainable development is more and more understood as being an inter-dependent mix of social, environmental and economic issues in the UAE."

3. Joshua F. Williams - Music producer, recording engineer and mixer
Joshua will talk about the life of an album, from initial idea to finished product. "Ultimately, albums have a way of taking on a life of their own, inevitably influenced by the goings on in the studio at the time, and what is happening in the musicians/producers lives. Each album tells a story. The presentation will try to tell those stories."

4. Mark Pilkington, a professor at the American University of Sharjah and a photographer, will present a series of photos that is work in progress called Catalogue.

5. Laura Egerton from Art Dubai will talk about Abraaj Capital Art Prize, the art prize for artists from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. It gives artists the opportunity to develop their ideas, and work on a grander scale and capacity. The mission of the prize is to empower artistic potential across the region, and showcase regional artistic excellence. The 2011 applications will open soon, and to date there have been 11 winners of the prize, but not yet one from the UAE. Hopefully this talk will encourage more UAE based artists to apply with some potentially winning concepts.

6. Melina Mitri from s*uce will present their latest community initiative, The Dubai Benches Projects. 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.
"Some landscaped areas in Dubai have benches but there are plenty that do not. Women jogging around Old Town have no place to sit and take a break, mothers with their children on the merry-go-round have no place to rest and watch while they play, friends who run into each other in malls have no place to hang out and catch up. Sometimes you don’t need a restaurant or coffee shop, you just need a bench. And there aren’t enough in Dubai."

7. Hattie Bowering's presentation is about the Monobloc Chair, one of the most successful piece of furniture ever manufactured. The chair will be presented to the audience in its many guises and question what this chair has to say about our relationship with the material world.

8. Jill Hoyle from Tashkeel will talk about its role as an independent resource for artists and designers living and working in the United Arab Emirates. Tashkeel was established in 2008 and is committed to facilitating art and design practice, cross-cultural dialogue and creative exchange. She will also tell us about their new second venue, The Tashkeel House based in Bastakiya which will provide six individual artist studios and a dedicated members gallery.

9. Gayathri Krishnan and Reiner Erlings will present the making of "Movement", a creative collaboration bringing together over 100 musicians and artists from the UAE. A first of its kind in the region, Movement at heart, is a musical concert, showcasing the music of Gayathri Krishnan featuring the UAE Philharmonic Orchestra - the show will see a marriage of contemporary and classical music like never before.

Gayathri Krishnan (musician, performing artist and the creator and musical director of Movement) and Reiner Erlings (Producer/Songwriter and the Co-Musical Director of Movement) will take us through the creative process of arranging and composing music for an orchestra and in turn the process of bringing together contemporary and classical music. They will use one of Gayathri's original songs called 'Sinking Superhero' and deconstructing it and reconstructing it live. This will be done through live performance, and adding in orchestral and sound design elements, whilst explaining the process of working in an orchestra, electronic percussion and concept-driven sound design.

www.thethirdline.com
www.pecha-kucha.org
www.pecha-kucha.org/night/dubai

Pecha Kucha Dubai on 19th Jan 2011