Tag: Creativity

Alex revisits his 2024 episode about the role of art in society, politics and protest giving his thoughts about its increasing relevance given the events of the intervening year.

Alex kicks off his miniseries on the written word as a form of therapy by recounting his own troubled relationship and history with words, and makes an impassioned plea for valuing creativity over technical perfection, particularly in the young.

Alex talks about the role of stories in how humans perceive the world and the role that art plays within this. He explains, using stories, how an artist encodes their story into every artwork, often in a non-linear fashion. Alex also talks about how autistic people feel compelled to tell their stories as a way of empathising with other people.

Alex returns to the thorny subject of generative AI and creativity reiterating his case for AI as a valid part of the creative process, but acknowledging the ethical and moral dilemmas it poses. He discusses the current, precarious state of the AI industry and speculates of what’s to come as the AI bubble is stretched to its limits.

Alex finally presents long awaited third part of his How to be Creative series, in which he takes us on a journey through the magical and maligned world of outsider art, takes aim the art ’establishment’ and makes a case for having a ‘just do it’ attitude to creativity.

It’s been exactly 1 year since I published the second part of my stuttering but stunning How to Be Creative series and I’ve finally got round to making part 3. That’s still in production, and will be with you soon, I promise! But in the meantime here’s the first 2 parts neatly packaged for your listening pleasure.

Hear Alex’s soothing and perhaps magical tones as he walks through some woods in the dark. Warning: this episode may contain bats and sheep!

By way of Aesop’s fable, The Ass and the Lion’s Skin, Alex explores the nature of identity, and how we all, especially autistics, wear a mask from time to time to hide our true selves. He discusses the indelible marks that doing so imposes on our future selves, how this leaks out into our art, and why donkeys are awesome.

Alex chats with Owen Moxey about the dauntingly wide world, both fantasy and real-life, of table top gaming, and how rediscovering Warhammer miniature painting helped him navigate the physical and psychological challenges of successive diagnoses of Functional neurological disorder, autism and ADHD.

Alex wonders the Scottish countryside and laments the lack of recognition for illustrators and fantastical artists, despite their significant contributions to art and culture.