Episodes
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In the first episode of a new series of The Creative Adventurer’s Survival Guide we re-introduce ourselves and reflect on the creative journeys we’ve been on over the last year.
Need some World Mapping ideas? Take a look at our map created in this episode
Many creatives find themselves going through a state of flux, periods when they can feel exceptionally laser-focused and other times when it’s necessary to go on a walkabout and to just let the imagination run free and untethered, but flux take us further off-course than expected.
This state of flux has been magnified by the upside-down nature of finding new ways of surviving a pandemic lifestyle, where social freedoms can chop and change. Just when you feel you’ve found your groove, it can soon be thrown off by further restrictions and road blocks. So how do we steer the stormy seas and navigate to calmer waters?
Well, in this episode we dig out the Sharpies and embark on a 'World Mapping' exercise, to ruminate over the new and exciting twists and turns that have blown us off-course, as we re-discover our natural rhythm of creativity.Here are some further inspirational resources discussed in this episode:
The Writer's Map: An Atlas of Imaginary LandsMission: Joy - Finding Happiness in Troubled TimesA lesson in Wise SelfishnessSpecial Books by Special KidsDownload our Creative Adventurer's wallpaper to brighten up your desktop.
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Feeling energised from our previous Adventurer's Charrette (Episode 5) we're limbering up for another creative gym session!
Emily Levine - How to Make Friends with RealityOrlandoThe Hive - a great place for a brew and to brew ideas!
In this episode of the Survival Guide, we begin to develop a creative 'happy hour' - starting with an ancient fossilised relic, we let our minds wander beyond the barriers of time to which we're bound and explore mysteries that we'll never ever know.
And a good mystery can always let the imagination run wild! What ideas will those mysteries uncover for you?
Here are some inspirational resources discussed in this episode:Download our Creative Adventurer's wallpaper to brighten up your desktop.
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Lisette Auton is a disabled writer, performer, activist, and creative practitioner based in North East England. She is a white woman with freckles and brown hair of changing length.
And her creative adventure had a significant breakthrough in 2018, winning one of 10 coveted spots in the Penguin Random House UK’s WriteNow Programme, which aims to find, mentor and publish new writers from communities under-represented on UK bookshelves.
Lisette is now busy working on her debut middle grade novel for Puffin Books called, The Secret of Haven Point, due to be published in 2022, and an as-yet untitled second book for 2023.
Woven throughout her tapestry of words, Lisette is driven to write the missing - to make disability highly visible and part of everyday conversation and creative practices, instead of being too often overlooked and ignored.
She is a founding member and Director of Disconsortia, a collective of disabled artists, who work to ensure equal inclusion across the creative landscape and all its practices.So in this episode, Lisette shares her passion for words and how she has adapted to the significant restrictions faced during the global pandemic.
Writing the Missing - A River Cycle (with BSL, Audio Description & Captions)What Would Frida Say? (captioned)Lisette Auton's Website
Explore more of Lisette's world of words:You can also discover more creative wonder of disability arts via:
DisconsortiaLittle CogDownload our Creative Adventurer's wallpaper for a bit of cheery inspiration on your desktop.
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If living through a global pandemic has taught us anything, it’s the value of community, and by community we mean the family, friends and locality that we’ve been restricted to through our respective lockdowns.
While there are boundless opportunities to discover creativity across the digital landscape, online distraction can distract from your creative tribe, and exploring the wealth of talent that lives right round the corner.
In this episode of the Survival Guide, Claire and Mark share the value they've discovered in reconnecting with home turf and the wellspring of inspiration they've tapped into.So we urge you to pick up your proverbial pickaxe and join us on an intrepid expedition for some Creative Gold Mining - you might just like what you find!
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"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." - Maya Angelou
Marketing… the modern business sales pitch to describe what mankind has been doing since the dawn of time - storytelling!
It’s the most basic and fundamental driver of the human experience and what gives our lives meaning. Stories are the backbone to creative practice and expressed through music, painting, architecture, CGI and sculpture… and even predates writing.
Wow, we’ve already been on an epic human adventure, and while we’re facing some troubled times, that journey and those stories continue.
So forget business jargon, because this episode of the Creative Adventurer's Survival Guide is all about the stories that have profoundly inspired us, and how we think our collective hero’s journey might evolve as the ground shifts under our feet.
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"The best use of imagination is creativity. The worst use of imagination is anxiety." - Deepak Chopra
Back in the day, when you were lost on an Alpine Pass with all hope lost, you might have looked to the horizon and seen a barrel-chested St Bernard standing over you in your hour of need with a keg of warm liquor to offer you a glimmer of hope.It’s a whimsical thought, but in reality there are times of crisis in our lives, when creativity can be a lifesaving force. One creative act can distract us when we're faced with an uncomfortable and sometimes frightening path.
If a year in isolation has taught us anything, it’s that creativity is humanity’s life jacket, that can be deployed at a moment’s notice when it’s so desperately needed.
So in this episode, we reflect on the times when we’ve reached for the rip chord and found safety aboard a creative lifeboat.When has creativity been there when you’ve needed it the most? When have you pulled the rip chord on an emergency supply of creative distraction?
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When it comes to turning a passion into a creative vision, Neil Cole has probably achieved what for most of us would remain a pipe dream. Neil has taken his love and enthusiasm and created... The Museum of Classic Sci-Fi!
A permanent exhibition that has materialised in Allendale, an unassuming village in the heart of North East England, the Museum showcases a substantial collection of original alien props, monstrous costumes, artwork and visual effects that many would recognise from the realms of science fiction on the big and small screen.
Rather than leave iconic pieces to gather dust in a basement, Neil has in fact turned that basement into a celebration of storytelling and imagination for everyone to experience and enjoy.
From Star Trek to the Marvel Universe; from Planet of the Apes to leaping forward to Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
Neil has even rescued and restored rare items that might have otherwise been destroyed beyond their onscreen use, and are now used to showcase a cultural heritage of genre stories and our fascination with all things above and beyond.
But being an Art Teacher turned Great Curator isn’t as easy as it sounds. It has certainly presented a unique set of challenges, from Daleks battling local Councils, to keeping an artistic venue going throughout a series of national lockdowns.
In this episode, Neil shares the power of creativity in his life - and the importance of following through with a creative vision, even when that vision may seem alien to others.
You can also support The Museum of Classic Sci-Fi by becoming either a Space Cadet, Starship Trooper or Space Guild Navigator and receive a wealth of content via Patreon. -
"Creativity is contagious, pass it on." - Albert Einstein
If a design charrette is like a good gym workout, then you know it’s been an effective exercise when you have creative fatigue, when your mind is over-spilling with ideas and you need a good sit down with a cuppa to drink in all that creative goodness.
That's how powerful a great collaboration can be; when you begin to spark inspiration after inspiration, it becomes infectious and before long you're stoking a blazing fire.
So in this episode of the Survival Guide, we go through our own design charrette to see how those ideas manifest, and hopefully they seed spontaneous starting points for your own creations, or even to find that creative gym bunny, who you can bounce ideas off and feel absolutely energised.
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"I believe that we form our own lives, that we create our own reality, and that everything works out for the best. I know I drive some people crazy with what seems to be ridiculous optimism, but it has always worked out for me." - Jim Henson
Creating the right conditions just to create is half the battle, when it comes to giving your project a chance of getting off the launchpad.
How many times have we seen a rocket ready to blast off to the International Space Station, only to see the mission scrubbed at the eleventh hour because the weather and environment weren’t quite right for all systems go?
So what are those vital conditions that light the blue touch paper and fire your imagination off into the dizzy heights of productivity?
In this episode of the Creative Adventurer's Survival Guide, we share some of the tips that have worked for us in making our creative space full of favourable conditions to give us the best opportunity to attract ideas like a lightning rod.
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Phil Mews is the Author of Orphan Boys, the bestselling memoir that lays bare the loss of both his parents when he was just seven-years-old. Not only did he have to deal with grief at such a young age, he also had to cope with a whole new way of life at boarding school with his younger brother, Roger.
But Orphan Boys isn’t just consumed by grief. Phil’s debut book is a coming-of-age story that celebrates cherished childhood memories and the immeasurable importance of love, family and community.
Growing up in the close-knit village of Stanhope in North East England in the 1970s, Phil has since gone on to establish a successful career in TV broadcasting for more than 20 years, a creative industry which in itself has taken a battering as a consequence of the pandemic.
So in this episode, Phil shares how he now dedicates more time to his joy and passion for writing and the challenges that have come from revisiting the memories that formed Orphan Boys and putting pain to paper.
Find out more about Phil's writing at: facebook.com/philmewsauthor -
Navajo mythology refers to a trickster known as Coyote. Creatives probably know this better as the Impostor, a trouble-making syndrome that sneaks about in our subconscious and tells us that we’re not good enough, or that we’re a fraud rather when it comes to artistic talent.
Some have a knack of ignoring Coyote, but others find Impostor Syndrome a constant challenge, to the point that amazing ideas remains hidden from the world because the artist is too caught up in how that idea will be perceived by the wider world.
So in this episode of the Survival Guide, we explore how Coyote affects creative productivity, how its influence may be affecting more creatives than ever because of pandemic restrictions, and how we can stay on track and have confidence in expressing ourselves creatively.
Still feel like an impostor? Remember that you're in good company with the likes of Maya Angelou and Albert Einstein.
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In our first episode, we rip the bandaid off to talk about the state of creative industries in the wake of the pandemic and consider the challenges that lie ahead for artists like ourselves.
Although this might seem a pessimistic subject, it’s an acknowledgement of where things stand with an emphasis on the positives that can potentially come out of what we’ve experienced together, and whether creativity can fundamentally change in its value and importance.
We can examine the imagination and talent that people have used as a means to connect while in isolation and why collaboration is important for creatives, now more than ever.
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The Creative Adventurer’s Survival Guide aims to help all artists to navigate their way along their creative path in an age of uncertainty and chaos for creative industries.
This podcast fuels artistic conversation and collaboration to spark ideas, because we want to support every creative hero to reach their goals, however challenging the journey.
Every episode the Survival Guide hosts, Mark Pattison and Claire Driver, meet the writers, musicians, performers, sculptors and designers, and use storytelling and brainstorming to learn about their successes and how to overcome the challenges when it comes to creating art.
This podcast fuels artistic conversation and collaboration to spark ideas, because we want to support every creative hero to reach their goals, however challenging the journey.
Mark Pattison is a Broadcaster and Communications Consultant, who is passionate about stoking up people’s creative fire and uses storytelling to share his vision for a world, where creativity is the bedrock for developing business and a whole new lifestyle.
Claire Driver has a background in Design and works as a County Councillor based in England’s North Pennines, and is passionate about the power of community.
