Words that feed you without filling you up

“Words that feed” was the theme at this year´s edition of Pechakucha, which took place at the Design Museum of Barcelona and which formed part of the Professional FLIC conferences. But what exactly is Pechakucha?

Pechakucha is a Japanese onomatopoeia that means “bla bla bla”, which we use to refer to the act of speaking. In the case of “Words that feed”, 11 speakers talked on and on following the rules of the game: 20 images and 20 seconds to comment on each of them.

Carme Ruscalleda opened the session with confessions such as “Pork has made me very happy” and “I started out experimenting with sausages” taking her to where she is today. The images followed the same line: her starting point, her evolution, her restaurant, the dishes she’s served or the ones she’s currently serving...

The conference was also attended by Arianna Squilloni, the author of a book that talks about the parallels between Ulysses’ life and the author’s own; the project in Tomaliers that encourages social integration through agriculture; the words of Oriol Canosa from the Pebre Negre cooperative bookshop who had us thinking about the fact that over time there has been a strong relationship between children’s books and food. According to Canosa, “children’s books are filled with evil foods such as Snow White’s apple. And, if not the food, it’s the children themselves who get eaten.”

Each of the speakers had exactly six minutes and forty seconds to claim, reinterpret and design the relationship between words and food using photos and drawings. “Be useless and you’ll change the world” as Jordi Luque said, or “Talk. Think. Draw” in the words of Manuel Moranta. These were just some of the titles of the mini lectures that were thought up to take a moment to reflect on 11 completely different styles.

A challenge that they all passed with flying colours and which has left us speechless. If this has ever happened to you, remember: blablabla or pechakucha (now that you’ve mastered Japanese!).