The engine cut and we drifted over Nobaruzone Channel. A narrow strait between the coast of Iriomote and Kohama Island.

‘They are here’ the captain said.

‘Go now and we meet up at 20 metres!’ shouted Naoto, our guide.

We rolled backwards off the boat and into the blue/black (you don’t see the bottom at sites like this). Dive computers on, checking depth until we reached 20 metres. Stabilise vertically, neutral buoyancy and turn through 360º to orientate and bang — there we were and there ‘they’ were — just as the first photograph shows. The ‘they’ the captain had talked about was a school of Great Barracuda and we had dropped right into the middle of them.

The first serious dive of the year. A couple of days diving in Ishigaki, one of Japan’s most western islands and a couple of days diving off Iriomote Island (even further west).

Prevailing north eastward currents, tendrils of the massive Kuroshio Current (Black Tide) which starts in The Philippines drives north up past Taiwan and then east along the southern coast of Japan to end mid-Pacific, drive water through this channel. Funnelling huge amounts of liquid into a relatively narrow gap and with nowhere else to go but forward this massive volume of water speeds up in order to get through to the open ocean on the other side.

For the diver this can create perilously strong currents but also the opportunity to see the types of creatures that thrive in fast moving volumes of water — typically large, powerful predators such as shark, barracuda, tuna and huge amounts of the smaller fish they prey on — sometimes seen in massive whirling spheres of bait fish known as ‘bait balls’.

Here Kuroshio collides with the great, south westward bound, Oyashio or Parental Tide (2) coming down from the sub-Arctic. And where predator laden warm water meets nutrient rich cold water you find the inevitable explosion of biodiversity and, for the lucky few some of the least known yet best diving in the world.

Recent observations indicate that Kuroshio is moving away from the Honshu coast. Although it has always flowed along the length of the coast of most of southern Japan, it was traditionally much further out at sea.

Only since 2017 has it adopted a snake like movement and undulated closer to certain sections of the coast bringing a wealth of animal and plant life with it. The downside to this is, as recent research has shown, Kuroshio’s closer proximity to the mainland has been a major factor in the increase in summer-time temperatures and humidity; particularly to the Kanto region.

No-one yet knows if it will move away for good or what will happen to the diversity of marine life if it does, but the signs are clear; it has started to move out to the open ocean once more and away from the coastal regions.

The next series of dives is closer to home and also much closer to the confluence of Kuroshio and Oyashio — to be amongst the hundreds (possibly thousands) of hammerhead sharks that come north east every year to feed and breed. This year may be the last year to experience this event so close to Tokyo; for with a change in currents and conditions the sharks will undoubtedly find another place to congregate.

I ended the last brief with a quote from Heraclitus.

Again quoting him seems apt:

‘You cannot step into the same river twice’.

Or ocean, for that matter.

In February I wrote about Approaching Simplicity in the context of our needing to fully understand the complexity of an issue before we can begin to simplify that issue for more effective communication.

Complexity in presenting does not only reside in the information we want to convey but, also in the way we design our visuals and how we use our presentation tools — the presentation software we choose to utilise.

This software typically has a host of options or effects available to accompany the delivery of each message. Bells and whistles, gimmicks, cheap built in tricks made available to the user to make up for lack of strong content.

Make no mistake they are not there to help you create a better presentation or deliver a more engaging talk. They are there because many people believe that by having more technology, options and gimmicks at their disposal will somehow make them better at what
they plan to do.

For proof of this look no further than the typical photography enthusiast investing in massive amounts of gear so that he can feel accomplishment by taking a macro shot of a flower in the local park.

Now contrast this with the works of, say Steiglitz or Cartier-Bresson who took some of the twentieth century’s most enduring images with cameras that are virtually primitive hand-cranked artefacts by comparison with today’s digital models.

The key to great photography lies within the photographer, not in the equipment he uses.

The same applies to presenting — a good presenter who has deep command of his subject and understands the value of emotion and engagement is going to make a far greater impression with nothing more than a flip chart than an ill-prepared, disassociated presenter relying on the latest version of whatever software, cinematic effects, multiple large screens and a script.

Fully understanding the complexity of your subject and being able to present this in the clearest, simplest form possible will create more engagement and have far greater impact than slides overloaded with information and effects.

When we review the content of our draft presentation one of the most valuable tools is to ask ourselves the following questions:

Is there anything here that is not necessary?

Is there anything that detracts from the purity of a simple message well said?

Is there anything that I can take away with prejudicing the overall message?

Use these questions not only to review your primary verbal and visual content but also to review what I call ‘peripheral content’ — titles, sub-titles, dates, actions, sounds, bullet points, headings, corporate logos, backgrounds, animations, cartoons etc …

If the answer to any of the above questions is yes (and it probably will be), then get rid of that content.

You do not need it.

If you don’t you could end up, heaven forbid, with a slide-deck something like this:

The slides are taken from a European MNC’s training sessions held earlier this year at various locations throughout Asia.

In the words of the BBC’s Ross Atkins (see February Brief)

Every piece of information you include needs to be doing a job.
If it isn’t doing one, it’s a distraction.

Point is The Competition

The Wreck of The Unbelievable

I don’t think I will ruin the effect by hinting here at what you will see or experience should you watch this film — just thinking about the title ‘The Wreck of The Unbelievable’ is a give away.

There are hints throughout the film about what is being perpetrated here and yet, whilst it is unbelievable, we find ourselves wanting so much to believe.

As Isabelle Adjani, playing Lucy Harker, says in Werner Herog’s ‘Nosferatu The Vampire’

‘Faith is the faculty in man which enables us to believe things we know to be untrue’.

Immersed in this spectacle, faith wins over logic and disbelief is all too willingly suspended.

This is story telling that is so good that even when we are told we are witnessing a fiction (an incredibly profound and beautiful fiction at that) we are so emotionally invested that our minds refuse to accept that it is all made up.

‘Beauty can suspend judgement and promote sensory immersion’.

Farb and Segal ‘Better in Every Sense’.

Creating and sustaining emotional investment is one of the great powers of good story telling. It makes us want/need to believe (much the same as Lucy’s faith) what we are witnessing is real.

In this case a meticulously crafted story unfolds before us. Treasures from an enormous cargo vessel dating back 2000 years are discovered on the floor of the Indian Ocean — a fabled hoard of fantastical riches which has passed undetected, beneath the waves, until now.

These must be discretely salvaged to be displayed/preserved in that most melancholy and ephemeral of cities, Venice. A city itself at the mercy of the ocean and slowly sinking, presumably to return these treasures, along with all the others, held in its palaces and halls to Neptune’s realm once again.

A Sisyphean tale, if ever, with perhaps more than a nod to Italo Calvino’s sublime imagination and beautiful fictions.

The reveal at the climax — the final, inevitable, dream shattering confirmation that what we have just seen was all fantasy, a trick of light, shadow and belief should not fail to bring, at least the slightest, smile of acknowledgment and resignation.

Beautiful art/artefacts, narrative and story for this post-truth world we live in.

Nicholas Raistrick | Communication Strategist, LABtokyo

Nicholas founded LABtokyo 10 years ago with the express commitment to helping people communicate to their highest potential.

We work with private individuals and corporate groups by delivering training and coaching programmes specifically designed to enhance all facets of interpersonal communication.

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If you are interested in learning more please write to us here or check our website at labtokyo.com.

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