An article for Arts
Professional
ArtsProfessional welcomes
Gillian Bates to contribute an occasional column
taking a look at the lighter side of life and
work as a freelancer in the arts.
I have just broken a most solemn vow. One I took
several years ago and one I did not make lightly.
I have just given my first ever PowerPoint presentation.
Why the vow and why the renunciation? Over the
years my response to PowerPoint presentations
has fallen into three categories: Gobsmacked (Yep…
clever… and your point is?…. blimey,
I’ve never seen clip art do that before…)
Bored (This is dull, so you bunged in some graphics
and now, yep, even duller.) Excruciatingly Bored
(Is this an Autocue? … why am I at the end
and you’re still only on the first sentence?)
From conference to conference the screens have
got bigger and bigger, and the speakers are dwarfed
in their glare. I even went to one where the screen
was centre stage and the speaker (actually a superb
communicator and strikingly good looking) was
somewhere, far stage left, in the dark.
Now call me old fashioned (never!), but whatever
happened to getting your point across with words?
Call me narcissistic (well, that would be fair
enough) but whatever happened to ‘look at
me while I’m talking to you’? Are
we all so in awe of the technology that we worship
its power and forget to make our point?
So I’ve battled on, carrying a high torch
for the old ways, technology free. Then, this
week, I cracked. Why? Well a month ago I saw a
good PowerPoint presentation. Not flashy, but
clever and informative and one in which the speaker
and the screen had a relationship. In fact they
had a whole duet thing going on - Speaker fed
Screen the lines, and Screen happily fed him straight
back. Screen was attractive, amusing and genuinely
creative, but never once tried to upstage Speaker.
It was a romance, but with only one ego involved.
(Frankly, that’s my kind of relationship).
So how did my first ever PowerPoint presentation
go? Well, put it like this, I’m in love.
Tuesday 4th February, 2003
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