Polytechnic to host Dunedin Fringe event for firts time

Media Release – Otago Polytechnic

For immediate release, Monday 7 March

Otago Polytechnic to host Dunedin Fringe Festival event for the first time

Otago Polytechnic is excited to be able to sponsor and host the 2016 Fringe Festival PechaKucha event taking place in The Hub on Tuesday 8 March at 7.00pm, a first for the institution.

“Otago Polytechnic is pleased to again have an association with the Fringe festival, and it’s wonderful to actually host an event here and support the Dunedin community,” says Mike Waddell, Otago Polytechnic Director of Communications.

The PechaKucha event is a fast-paced sharing of ideas and storytelling. Twelve presenters show 20 images each via a data projector, with only 20 seconds to speak about each image (a total of 6.4 minutes per presentation). The images are automated, so presenters must keep time with the slideshow.

Otago Polytechnic is a Bronze Partner for the Fringe Festival and will have several staff members featuring in the event, including:

• MC for the night: Caro McCaw, Communication Design Academic Leader

• Presenter: Andy Thompson, Programme Manager and Principal Lecturer,Otago Institute of Sport and Adventure (ISA)

• Co- Presenter: Ron Bull, Senior Lecturer Treaty Education & Training Unit

Andy Thompson has worked for Otago Polytechnic for fifteen years, and as a professional outdoor instructor in the industry for more than twenty five years. He has taught and guided people in activities such as sea kayaking, mountaineering, rock climbing, cycling and mountain biking around New Zealand but also in Antarctica, Africa, Canada and Australia, and has always had his camera handy to pursue his other love – outdoor photography.

“My PechaKucha is about combining your passion with work which is what I’ve done. I’m going to draw upon my life story right from when I was a teenager through to now in 20 slides,” says Andy.

Ron Bull, is co-presenting with Simon Kaan, on the latest iteration of the Department of Conservation sponsored Kaihaukai Art Project.

“The Kaihaukai Art Project is an examination of identity through interaction with food: gathering, preparing, feasting and sharing. The Dusky Sound project saw Simon and I spend time on Indian Island, the site where Cook first made contact with Southern Maori, namely a gentleman by the name of Maru. We immersed ourselves in the environment and only ate foods we collected from that environment. The purpose was to connect with the Island in the same ways as Maru and others would have in that time of first European contact.”

“Cook’s artist William Hodges, painted Maru standing on a rock on Indian Island in Dusky Sound and another of the Cascade Falls. These two paintings will form the introduction to the PechaKucha and we’ll go on to talk about our responses in situ,” says Ron.

-ENDS-

The 2016 Fringe Festival Otago Polytechnic PechaKucha Event is on Tuesday 8 March, doors open at 6.30pm, show starts at 7.00pm at The Hub, Otago Polytechnic, Forth St, Dunedin

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