4 Podcast — JIAS

The R&D phase of the Joyful Institute for Adequate Studies (JIAS) is supported by Creative Scotland's Go See Share fund, which enabled JIAS founder Anthea Moys to travel to Denmark to participate in CounterPlay 2026 — an international festival of play — and to interview nine practitioners whose conversations form this podcast series. The podcast series was produced with support from Altered Lens (Johannesburg, South Africa) and the Really Terrible Orchestra (Edinburgh), whose rehearsals open and close every episode. This website was designed by Francis Burger (Johannesburg, South Africa).

The Joyful Institute of Adequate Studies Podcast.

Episode 4. Alan Grieve — You Have One

Ep.4. Alan Grieve — You Have One

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Two days into a research residency at the Western General Hospital, Alan Grieve saw the sweetie and newspaper trolley go past. The one with permission to go everywhere.

He turned to Shona Reppe and said: that's it.

They spent a week volunteering on it. Getting its rhythms. And then they built their own version — funked up, with headphones and scratch-and-sniff postcards. They gave everything away for free. The slogan was: you have one.

Alan has failed spectacularly twice. Got asked to leave Edinburgh College of Art in third year. Lost the first salon to mismanaged funds. He is not ashamed of either. He quoted Beckett without fanfare: it's all failure, so it's cool.

The hairdressing salon he rebuilt in 2011 is the financial engine of everything. Cut enough hair. Put on the events. Don't waste time on things that don't sustain you. Alan is workspace dunfernline.

There is something so fundamentally adequate about this model that I find it fabulously moving.

stop drawing