Creative Chit Chat - Dundee

Gemma is a dancer, choreographer and creative producer who trained under one of Kayne West's dancers and now runs The Artifact a company creating performance, directing movement producing arts events and research. Gemma briefly dives in to the history of Hip-Hop culture and the 5/6 pillars that make it up. She also has an amazing tree based analogy for the development and evolution of the culture which is genius. Gemma has already released 2 ebooks that are available here. There’s still 4 to come in the series and her plan is to publish a big meaty printed book of all 6 once the series is complete. We also get into how the perception of Hip Hop is has been massively skewed by commercial Hip Hop music. Rappers with derogatory and discriminatory lyrics throwing money around is a facet that has come from Hip Hop culture but it only represents a tiny minority of it. It also doesn’t represent the core values of the movement. Gemma's Twitter - https://twitter.com/ArtifactTweets The artifact - www.theartifact.or

Russell is currently doing a PhD on community renewable energy systems and works from Fleet Collective. We chat about his journey to Dundee and how he created Dundee’s first street art trail Open/Close. Russell admits himself that he’s not very ‘creative’ but he enjoys facilitating others creativity and making projects happen. The co-working environment in Fleet Collective really spurred him on to start the Open/Close project and we had the people here to help him make it happen. Backed by funding from the Place Partnership and the Cultural Tourism Fund Russell commissioned 18 artists to paint doors all around the city centre. Not on the high street or the beaten track but down the amazing hidden alleyways and closes of Dundee. I was involved in helping to create the trail, the printed maps and the online presence to allow the project to flourish. It’s actually astounding the amount Russell managed to achieve in such a short space of time and how the trail is moving towards self-sufficiency. Russell is

This week features the young people of Dundee answering questions loosely based on the theme future perfect. I organised it with Andy Robertson who runs the creative programme at the Hot Chocolate Trust based at the Steeple Church in Dundee's city centre. Over the course of 3 weeks we had various young people come in to the recording room and spend 2-3minutes answering a question. Once they had answered they could create their own question for someone else to answer. It's a great format that worked previously at the design festival and I'm tempted to say it worked even better with young people. They did need a bit of prodding here and there but the conversations we had were phenomenal. Such a diverse range of topics and we get into some deep and dark areas. I'm really excited to put this out and I hope you enjoy it. Hot Chocolate is a youth work charity based in Dundee. They use creative approaches to engage, build relationships, and grow community with the young people who hang out in the city centre, provi

This week it's a collaboration between the Beans Podcast and Creative Chit Chat for a roundtable all about story telling. We discuss the landscape of story telling today and get into some of our favourite storytellers. We then go off into an interesting debate over positive discrimination in storytelling and whether we should be consuming the content of disgraced celebrities. It was an absolute pleasure to have Erin, Sam and Valerie on the podcast and if you haven't caught The Beans yet then go do it now: https://www.thebeanspodcast.com Valerie Glen Mullen - https://twitter.com/v_glenmullen Valerie’s website - http://www.valerieglenmullen.com/ Sam Gonçalves - https://twitter.com/SidlingBears Feature content at Creative Dundee - https://creativedundee.com/features/ Erin Farley - https://twitter.com/aliasmacalias Brandon Sanderson - https://brandonsanderson.com/ Louis Theroux - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05qzmgd Lois McMaster Bujold - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_McMaster_Bujold Vorkosigan S

Claire’s email - claire@creativedundee.com Creative Dundee - http://creativedundee.com Dundee Wearable Arts - http://www.dundeewearableart.com/ Creative Industries Strategy - http://dundeecreates.com Creative Dundee’s 99 things to see and do guide - http://creativedundee.com/2017/05/a-brand-new-99-things-to-see-and-do-in-dundee/ Claire’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/byricohet

Kevin is a 4th year product design student with a real understanding of aesthetic and form. During the episode we talk about what Kevin’s plans for the future post graduation. Basically he wants to stay if he can. Meaning if there are the right conditions to support his own product design practice or an attractive enough position at a company. Again and again this issue comes up of the reluctant leavers. We need to have a creative infrastructure that allows graduates to start their own businesses and then sustain them. This is all outlined in Dundee’s Creative Industries Strategy. It launched last week and if you haven’t read it, go do it now. http://dundeecreates.com It’s an amazing piece of work facilitated by creative Dundee. They created the strategy through a series of focus groups and discussions with creatives in the city and industry stakeholders. The outcome is a strategy with clear goals, directions and aims that are actionable. Back to the episode though: Kevin gives a very honest account of h

John runs a private letterpress studio up in Coupar Angus making small and beautiful print runs. To tell you how I first met John I need to introduce Kevin Sinclair, a 4th year Product Design student and DJCAD. Kevin got in touch with me last year to go for a coffee and a chat. We left the meeting on the terms that we could potentially work on a project together if the right brief or opportunity arose. This summer Kevin got back in touch saying that he’s been up in Coupar Angus doing some letterpress printing with John and that I should come up and meet him. I duly went up and we had a 3 hour chat about art, design, printing and everything in between. I saw the logical conclusion to the first meet up that I should have both of the guys on the podcast and then we should collaborate to create a couple of prints. This week’s episode is my conversation with John. I think we talked for somewhere between 2 and 2.5 hours. It was a bit of a nightmare to edit but I just didn’t want to cut John off as he’s a fo

Originally from Barcelona, Joan is an independent choreographer based in Dundee. He has worked for fourteen years as a dancer, teacher and rehearsal director in companies across Europe, including Scottish Dance Theatre, the Ballet of the Graz Opera (Austria), the company of the Choreographic Centre of Valencia, and Ballet Carmen Roche (Madrid). He now runs his own company called Joan Clevillé Dance based in Dundee. Personally I have very little experience or knowledge of performative dance and if I’m honest, I was pretty nervous going into the recording. I feel particularly uncomfortable talking about subjects I have little knowledge of. Luckily it turned out to be one the most relaxed and enjoyable conversations I think I’ve ever had on the podcast. Joan talks beautifully about his work and the thinking behind his productions and I was surprised in parallels I could draw from his design process. We took a pretty deep dive into how Joan creates his work and how performances evolve over time. ‘Sketching’ in

From Survivor to Superman to Schemers Angie has an impressive back catalogue of project but is now in Dundee as a script supervisor for Dundee’s first feature film, Schemers. Originally from Australia Angie was attracted over here by the film and TV industry and the sheer number of UK productions. She has a seriously impressive roster of projects under her belt including Peter Pan, Happy Feet 2 and Superman Returns. We chat about what it’s like to work alongside some big superstars like Tom Hardy on Mad Max Fury Road. The project that has brought Angie to Dundee is the Schemers film: Dundee’s first feature length film that is currently in post production. Everything I’ve seen or heard about it so far has been really positive and I’m excited to see the final product. There’s not a lot of information in the public domain at the moment but check out the links below to get a little behind the scenes peek. Angie’s career hasn’t always been high profile movies and TV shows though. We cover how she got her sta

Malath is a brilliant artist, producer and games designer championing collaboration. We chat through his journey to Dundee from Baghdad to forming Biome games collective in Dundee. After moving Liverpool in 1991 Mal found his love of computer games through PC gaming titles like DOOM when he was at school. He then recalls saving up hard to get his hands on his first console, the playstation. After technology and gaming captured his interest he decided to study programming at university and then went on to work at several different games companies. Mal first came to Dundee for the Dare to be Digital festival and a while later decided to create a company with a model to challenge traditional games companies. He co-founded Biome collective - A co-working space and company for people who want to create, collaborate and explore games, digital art and technology. Although games is primarily what Biome works on they tend to explore a much more experimental and more art based practice. It’s great to see someone cha

Welcome back to series 2 of the podcast. After a bit of a summer break I'm back and feeling refreshed. There's loads of great things lined up for the coming weeks but to get us started it's the last of the batch of recordings from Punch In/Punch Out at the Dundee Design Festival. If you haven't listen to one before it's a collection of mini chats with the visitors to this year's Dundee Design Festival at West Ward Works. There was an amazing range of people at the festival and these episodes document some really interesting insights into their working practices and thoughts on life. I'd also like to say thanks to this week's sponsor - Joan Clevillé Dance and their production of The North on at Dundee Rep Theatre on Saturday the 30th of September at 8pm. The performance will be BSL interpreted by Jennifer Ramsay and you can join the discussion with Joan and the dancers after the show. You can book tickets here: http://cccdundee.com/thenorth Or give Dundee Rep Theatre a call on 01382 223 530 Here's a little

Clare has been curator of Abertay University’s Hannah Maclure Centre for the past 6 years as well as lecturing and working on many other projects including Neon Digital Arts Festival. Originally she graduated in fine art pursuing a career in painting but found herself being drawn towards the curation of others. She confesses that this is probably partly down to her desire to be around great people and not tucked away in a solitary studio. I can definitely relate to that, I don’t think I’d be able to run Slurpp from a bedroom in my house. I enjoy being around people to bounce ideas off or just talk nonsense around the lunch table with. For me I think that comes from having previously worked at an agency but it’s something that co-working spaces are great for. During our chat Clare says she constantly feels like an imposter as if someone is going to tap her on the shoulder and tell her the game is up. This is definitely a common thread from people who have been on the podcast and I think it boils down to push

This week it’s the turn of Clive Gillman, Director of Creative Industries at Creative Scotland, to take the guest seat on the podcast. I’m sure many of you will know him from his 10 years at the helm of the DCA. His journey has taken him from London to Liverpool to Dundee and now Edinburgh. As we chatted about his life and his journey it was clear to see that Dundee has had a profound impact on his life and the time he spent at the DCA is very close to his heart. He speaks fondly of the city, describing it as nugget sized but encrusted with fine jewels, which is a beautiful little analogy. I’m sure a few of you will have heard me banging on about the fact that we should all just go and ‘make more stupid shit’. I was really pleased to hear that Clive has a parallel view that ‘the most important things in life are useless’. OK so maybe not completely useless but that maybe we should just take life a little less seriously and have a bit more fun. It’s definitely something that I try to encourage. We should all

Lauren is a service designer and describes herself as an ‘Ambassador of people’. She’s already had a pretty glittering career being named in Elle’s top 30 women under 30 and bagging an OBE in the Queen’s latest honours list. She studied product design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee the year above me. She also went on to do a Masters in Design where it allowed her to focus on Service Design. At that time it was very much an emerging discipline and you could argue it still is today. After university Lauren has gone on to a multitude of successes. Co-founding Snook, one of Scotland’s first Service Design agencies and then moving through a few positions until starting her current post at The Good Lab - A collaboration of 12 of the UK’s best-known charities looking at new and innovative ways of raising funds. What strikes me about Lauren is her drive and determination to make change for the better. To stand up against the issues that she is passionate about and really make a differen

This week’s guest is Colin Gray who runs The Podcast Host, a content platform and series of podcasts that teach people how to podcast. I think I first came across Colin’s website when I was looking to set up Creative Chit Chat and read a few of his articles around equipment. Thing is, I had no idea that he was based here in Dundee! The majority of his audience and target market are based in America as the podcasting market is gigantic over there. The website is just an amazing source of content whether your’e looking to start up podcasting or develop and further an existing podcast. A lot of the content is available for free but they also offer courses and 1-1 tuition to help you build your podcast and your audience whether you’re doing it from your bedroom or creating it for education or business. When I found out Colin was based in Dundee I just had to get him on. He was kind enough to let us do the recording at his studio in Meadowmill and we did 2 recordings back to back. 1 for CCCDundee and 1 for Podcraf

Kirsty runs Charcot a design label inspired by the neurological condition Multiple Sclerosis. Since her diagnosis 10 years ago she has been using her MRI scans, thoughts, feelings and experiences with the disease to drive her creative work. Her focus is to raise awareness about MS using her creations and help make conversations easier about the disease. We had a really inspirational chat around how MS has affected her life and how she has take so much positivity from a dark situation. Kirsty's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mskirstystevens/ Kirsty's Twitter - https://twitter.com/mskirstystevens MS - Multiple Sclerosis - http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Multiple-sclerosis/Pages/Introduction.aspx Tatty Devine - https://www.tattydevine.com/ Vanilla Ink - http://www.vanillainkstudios.co.uk/ Charcot - https://www.charcot.co.uk/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/charcotstudio/

Finlay is probably best known for the success of his Kilted Yoga video pulling in over 53million views. We chat about the opportunities this has created and how he has built and maintained a massive social following. Beyond that he runs Heartspace Yoga in Dundee as well as Heartspace Wholefoods store. Even if you're not into yoga, Finlay's journey is fascinating. Kilted Yoga Video - https://www.facebook.com/bbcthree/videos/1085397204904035/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE Finlay’s instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finlay0901/ Heartspace - http://yoga.heartspacedundee.co.uk/ Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/Finlay0901 Website - http://www.finlay-wilson.com/ Finlay’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/Scottishyogaboy Finlay’s Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/FinlayTWilson Kilted yoga 2 video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_YO010xXRA

Shafeeq, Nathan & Gary started the menswear brand and store Cartoon a few years ago. They now have a store situated across from the DCA, a beautifully curated space with well designed quality products and a relaxed atmosphere. We did a bit of a round the mic with all 4 of us chatting about their joinery from initial brainstorming to creating the actual store itself. We also touch on their thoughts on the independent retailer scene in Dundee and why we should encourage more people to have physical shops. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cartoconstore/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CartoconStore Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cartocon

The second in the series from the installation at West Ward Works for the Dundee Design Festival 2017. It's been great fun editing all the mini conversations together and I've worked out there's enough content to create 4 individual episodes but I'll be keeping a hold of numbers 3 and 4 to put them out in a few weeks time. Again I'd like to say thanks to Ed Broughton for help with the recording setup and Lyall Bruce and Kate Saunderson for helping with the recordings.

As part of this year's Dundee Design Festival I created an installation of the podcast called Punch In/Punch Out. In the same way that Creative Chit Chat captures the thoughts and opinions of creatives and designers in and around Dundee, I wanted to capture the thoughts of the people on the factory floor at the design festival. This is the first episode in a series of podcasts collating over 100 chats that were captured during the festival. Visitors selected a question card from the rack and then they used the Punch In machine. We had a chat for a few minutes around the topic or question on the card before they had the opportunity to add their own question to the rack and finally Punch Out. I'd like to say thanks to Ed Broughton for help with the recording setup and Lyall Bruce and Kate Saunderson for helping with the recordings.