causing a stir in fanworld!

well all is go in the inclusive arts camp.. we're well on with our latest bid and it's looking verrry positive - hurrah! racking up those clients and setting our stall out with potentials, who at this stage make me wonder if we might all have to give up our day jobs in the not too distant future. i've had to drop to three days a week to manage my art and study workload but believe me it would be uber cool to have not to go teach in a formal environment anymore.. dont get me wrong, i love my studes and all they achieve but it would be great to make the move from semi-prof. to prof. artiste..

on a personal note ie: my own work.. i am making waves.. sadly not everyone out there gets what i do, and that's cool and all, but somehow my latest project appears to be causing a little stir in certain quarters with the twitland aspect coming under the microscope.. recently i started a piece which is investigating the notion of celebrity/fan dynamics and basically how fr@king bizarre they are! in an effort to redress the balance between fan and idol i decided to create a piece of work documenting every little minutiae of my paltry existence and then give it to a 'celeb' who is known for his real&human status.. ie: one that doesn't have his head firmly up his proverbial and would hopefully have the humour to receive the piece in the spirit intended.. meanwhile i would document my findings and put it all together in one of my comedy powerpoints for later performance.. all this came out of a minor transfer fixation i developed a short while ago when i OD'd on BSG.. for those not in the know this is an excellent piece of drama set in a sci-fi reality and i was using these heavy duty viewing seshs as a means to divert my attention away from the loss of ronaldo.. one of the characters looks a lot like m'seur le boyf and also ronaldo as a young chap.. so sad to say he got it! for about all of five minutes.. cause naturally when i checked myself and went OMG sims what the heck are you doing?? you cant start falling in love with a TV character cause that would be just like weird natch? but the thing was we had so much in common (well not really. i live in the now.. he isnt real..) but there was this final scene when the character said he was 'done with humans.. done with cylons' and was going to hot foot it up north (sensible chap) and live on a remote island.. something i'd done when leaving uni eons ago for much the same reasons.. apart from the cylons bit.. cause THEY'RE NOT REAL ! so.. i trawled the net fishing for further info and found this whole mythology relating to the show after it had ended *what?? i know - bizarre* and it turned out that the fans had decided this character had moved to a scottish island and become the first king of scotland.. OMG! i said.. the first king of scotland's castle was in my garden when i lived there.. and i have the pictures to prove it.. so i will post them! yep.. back in the day the lord of the isles lived in a castle that is sited right in front of my house just by the sea.. well that was the clincher. apart from anything i just knew that 'galen' and i had to be together (magic-reality licence here foks) but more than that i had to get to the bottom of this thing called the FAN cause it looked to me like fan-dom was something that could really take over your life and the boundaries between real and not-real become verrry blurred.. what i found out really started to weird me out.. there are loads of folks out there who appear to really 'believe'.. more so than anything it's like that because they know a few bits and pieces about a 'celeb' that the 'celeb' knows them.. is their friendy wendy like.. i started to watch interactions on twitter and people genuinely talk to this guy ( the actor that plays him obviously) in a really personal way.. all the big ups and the shout outs.. it really is so lovely to see.. they really love this guy.. and what's more this guy seems to really love them! i also found out that this guy had suffered great personal tragedy in his life.. which made his interactions with his fans all the more poignant.. so i thought i've got to make the work.. which i am doing.. and i've got to get it to him.. he does all these convention things so i thought i maybe could go along to one of those to deliver the work in person.. but meanwhile i started to make the odd jokey reply to some of his tweets and eventually i sent him the stalkee/stalker script as part of my recognition of some of the interactions i suspect occur in his life as a 'celeb' .. and here in lies the rub.. it appears that his fans (female at this point) really find what i am doing wrong.. obviously they dont know the back story or that, although i admire this man his craft, i'm not a fan per se.. so maybe they are missing my point.. i originally asked him to let us know where he would be posting, in reply to him letting his followers know a forum he had was going to be cancelled. he replied and pointed me in the direction of his fansite (more of which another time).. in reply to this i then asked for the actor's permission to use info given etc in my research.. told him what the research project was called *working title for now - a treatise on the inverse of celebrity slash twitter cured my celebrity crush* but realised he would shortly be busy watching the canada/usa gold medal final (who wasnt that night!) and so let him know i could see he probably had more important things to consider right then.. kindly he tweeted back to say talk to me later and so far he doesnt seem to have made any objections to my tweets.. so i'm a bit confused at this point.. do i go with my instincts and say fr@k thee to those pesky hard core have his children fans? (not that i would actually say those words cause that would be just plain rude.. but you know what i mean..) OR do i respect the sanctity of fan-dom and keep the pedestalising status quo of fan and 'celeb'? perhaps if i posted recent tweets relating to this here all this might make more sense..

it seems it was the stalkee/stalker script tweets that initally got the ball rolling so here they are:

tabithasims @theaarondouglas : you! you’re such a rubbish stalker..no the bridge big ups, no gaming mentions, just pointless jokes that aren’t funny!

tabithasims look i know, i’m sorry but galen, i don’t get it, who’s this @theaarondouglas guy? why do you keep calling yourself that? i’m confused.

tabithasims @theaarondouglas : but that’s me.. wait, you don’t think.. oh no! not again.

tabithasims then there’s this frank leo – who the heck is he? how many other names do you have galen? i mean frank, @theaarondouglas, young meccan..

tabithasims @theaarondouglas : security? ..yep, it’s another ‘believer’..ten minutes? could you make that like now?.. sure.. okay.. thanks..

tabithasims ...soldier.. i just don't know who you are anymore..*sniff* that @theaarondouglas.. he's such a fraud.. ow! get your hands off me.

first response and my replies..

  

@tabithasims Tabitha, did it ever occur to you that your Tweets to this poor guy sound scary as hell? Pull it together

hi..have you read all of them or just the stalkee/stalker script? i've asked for his permission as part of post grad research..

..in a way they are meant to sound 'scary' as they represent fandom in it's extreme.. that's what i'm looking at right now..

.. but thanks for your input, i appreciate that.. please feedback more if you wish i would value that.. take care :o)

second response and my replies..

@tabithasims Well, you've got it. I'm glad [name of previous sender] said something. What is your behavior trying to elicit? Aaron to leave Twitter?

hi thanks for your views..personally i hardly think that will happen, after all who am i in the wider picture? it's good to see...

.. that you guys care so much, i'm sure he appreciates that.. as to my 'behaviour' it's as i explained to [name of previous sender] and not..

actually trying to 'elicit' any particular thing..i get mr. douglas likes a joke and i'm sure when we meet we will have a few more

..apologies if you find my work personally offensive but that's not my intention i assure you.. have a good day and take care :o)

@tabithasims No offense taken. It's just that if I were a public figure, I would find the Tweets disturbing on a personal level.

well as explained to [name of previous sender] i have sought his permission to interract and use findings for research with no objection so far..

..i really dont think me or my humour would be considered really that important to any 'public figure' but thanks..take care now )

as they say in the trade.. i will keep you posted with any further feedback..