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Alt. Ctrl. Create was a podcast for creative businesses working in the challenging and changing times of the Covid-19 pandemic, and was produced in association with XpoNorth Digital.

This podcast explored the insights and strategies needed by small creative businesses as they navigate the new normal.

This show was produced and presented by Peter Urpeth -

Theme music - Dirt Rhodes by Kevin MacLeod.

Season 1, Ep. 1

Episode 1 - Mark McGuinness - Navigating Uncertainty

In episode one of Alt Ctrl Create, Peter Urpeth talks to poet and creative coach Mark McGuinness.

This episode was recorded as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, and this interview explores some of the approaches and strategies Mark recommends to sustaining creativity, developing new assets for your creative business and using curiosity to explore and inspire your business.

This podcast is produced in association with XpoNorth - the agency that supports the growth of creative business in the Highlands and Islands - xponorth.co.uk

Mark McGuinness's coaching work is accessed via his website - https://lateralaction.com - and his podcast site - https://lateralaction.com/21stcenturycreative/

Also available on iTunes podcast as 21st Century Creative

Mark's poetry website is at markmcguinness.com

Peter Urpeth is publishing sector advisor to XpoNorth, a pianist, journalist and film-maker with a passion for the innovation of small creative businesses - peterurpeth.com

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3650-dirt-rhodes

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Full transcript available at the acast homepage

Episode 2 - Nick Chapin - Life in Limbo

In Episode two of Alt. Ctrl. Create. Peter Urpeth talks with Nick Chapin, publisher of Limbo magazine.

Limbo is a new arts and culture magazine, produced and published at the height of the pandemic lock-down in the UK. In changed times, Nick and the Limbo team have opted for a collective, profit-share approach and have assembled a unique blend of content that acts as a kind of time capsule for the period, a companion to the journey ahead, and an inspiration for a new way of doing things.

The magazine features work by Vivienne Westwood, Peaches and Dan Fox among a stellar content list.

Nick Chapin was Director of Publishing at Frieze magazine, and General Manager of Virtue, the commercial creative division of Vice.

Limbo magazine can be found at: https://www.limbomagazine.com

Episode 3 - Meredith O’Shaughnessy - Let’s Get Phygital

In episode three of Alt. Ctrl. Create. I talk with Meredith O'Shaughnessy, leading experiential marketer and brand strategist, and founder of the innovative agency the Meredith Collective.

Once dubbed 'the pop-up queen of London', projects such as opening London’s first avocado-only restaurant just as the avocado was to go mainstream in the minds of eager consumers to the development of Rudolph’s Christmas Rage Room have confirmed Meredith as not only an industry disruptor but also a creative event specialist with a truly astonishing ability to foresee emerging trends in popular culture and to create experiences and events that are culturally relevant. 

Not content to simply respond to client briefs, with her company, the Meredith Collective, Meredith stages unique consumer events that have become hot-ticket retail opportunities for innovative and forward thinking brands. 

You can connect with Meredith and the Meredith Collective at the website meredithcollective.com 

Episode 4 - Dan Fox - The Good Fallow

In episode 4 of Alt Ctrl Create, Peter Urpeth speaks with Dan Fox, former editor of leading international art world journal, Frieze Magazine, and the author of two books published by Fitcarraldo Editions. 

This podcast focuses on Dan's second book, Limbo, and its compelling relevance to creativity and creative business in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

In this interview we discuss how the concept of limbo adds a positive reality to the difficulty of being endlessly creative in the time of that pandemic, and how embracing and working with fallow periods is a natural and productive part of a creative life.