t.r.sims photographs and other thoughts

further feedback regarding my wave making machine..

2010-03-12T00:23:00.007Z

well i have recieved some quite strong feedback since yesterday in response to my stalkee/stalker script..

response three and my reply..

@tabithasims "talk to me later" means "STFU I'm trying to watch hockey" it doesn't mean "you have my permission to make creepy comments".

slow down there tiger. i'm sure mr.douglas can fight his own battles. if indeed there is one. which clearly there isnt.

i felt that 'shut the fuck up' was a bit harsh so i decided to have a look at this guy's profile (yep. it was a guy this time, make of that what you will) and i learnt that this guy had made only the one tweet - to me. had no followers and only followed this one particular actor. i was curious about this and it lead me to take a look at the other commentators' profiles too. again commentator one had only the tweet to me, no followers and followed just this one actor... i wondered if this was a coincidence, and noted that perhaps this was more of an example of stalker activity then any of my attempts at observational comedy but i digress.. commentator two broke the pattern as she followed several people and appeared to have a few followers also. but interestingly her page was racked with @ comments to this actor.. i'd say a good 60% or more of her tweets were replies to his.. had i stumbled across a collection of uber-fans? or had they unwittingly revealed themselves to me in their protestations of my activities.. it raised the famous question 'perhaps the lady (or gentleman) protests too much?' (though the use of the male title is perhaps somewhat questionable considering his defence of the actor seemed more like an offensive to me, and hardly gentleman-like..) was it more a case that these uber-fans did not like what they saw me write, not so much because they truly felt the perceived pain and suffering of their idol, but because they blanched at a redition of themselves?

it was interesting that they had felt slighted enough to reply to my tweets, clearly it must have bothered them to read my words and they felt compelled to let me know that was the case.. in an analysis of what they wrote i realised that commentator two seemed concerned that the actor would leave twitter as a result of my actions.. not something she would appreciate if she chose to keep abreast of this person's activities through his tweets. no 'celeb' to follow on twitter - no insights and information to be had. this made sense to me from their perspective, as their page demonstrated they liked to interact with the actor and replied to them regularly. it struck a chord with something i'd written recently regarding the space on twitter as posssibly serving a function of connectivity between people in differing world spaces. clearly if this was taken away from this person, by the actor leaving, she would no longer have that connection. something perhaps would be lost for her?

however the two people who chose not to interact with their idol, simply follow them, maybe fell into the catagory of voyeur. in their own individual ways their comments to me paralleled an assumption, on their part, of personal slight on behalf of the actor. telling me what the actor meant when he replied to me wasn't the actual words the actor had written, showed an arrogance on behalf of this fan. they assumed to know their idol so much they actually knew what he was thinking at the time of his tweet. the female who asked me had i thought about what i was writing and how it could be received wrote that she felt the tweets to be 'scary as hell' and labeled the actor a 'poor guy', by proxy revealing that she knew he would perceive the tweets as intimidating and in some way feel victimised by them. this clear transference of the commentators own emotions on to that of their idol struck me as most interesting. one of my hypothese so far identified has been that the fan assumes an intimacy with the object of their fanaticism, which goes beyond the realms of actuality. in a way the comments from this particular actor's fans confirmed this. by feeling and thinking on behalf of their idol, and acting upon their personal responses, the fans were showing me that they felt they had the authority to do so. in fact one fan went so far as to use the actor's first name, an act of familiarity unsupported by a genuine relationship between these people.

all this seemed to me to be most indicative of a proposed hypothesis i was developing, that a fan's perceived status in the life of their idol may be greater than was in reality the case. had i now potentially struck research gold in that my findings were matching up with my initial speculations? and, if so, how may i mine this seam further? was it now time to approach the fans of this actor direct and get some of their views on what made them follow this actor, and to what extent they felt they could be called a fan?

what is twitter for?

2010-03-12T00:11:00.001Z

i felt i needed to find out more about the function of twitter as i was uncertain as to it's validity as a means to interract.. sure it was providing me with some interaction, as real&human 'celeb's' fans were certainly interracting. but as to their moral authority to do so in this instance the jury was out.. i decided to ask other twitter users what they thought and posed the question what is twitter for? not getting any replies at that point i decided to tackle the question myself and see if anyone then joined in the debate..

clearly i need to go in to the wider community as my followers (hate that word) seem shy..#twitter - what is it for? thoughts please..

b&w film spinning newspapers - perhaps i'm coming at this from the #wrongangle? perhaps it is simply a #leftbrain experience.. a space to #catagorise, #compartmentalise and #organise the activities of #others and #ourselves into #soundbites that say what, exactly? that one is #popular #exciting #desirable #welldressed #witty #active #sociallymobile #erudite #religious #famous #haveggoodmusicaltaste #blahblah.. but the #questions remains.. does this bring us any #closer to another? or foster a greater sense of understanding as to who that person is?

we put our #stuff out #there with what #intention in #mind? who is our #audience? what is our #performance? or are we #here to be that #audience for #another? to #evesdrop in on a #world that really isn't our #own? with #consent to #listen given? and between #listener and #listenee, what #power #balance is #created? in fact who really holds that #power? who is in #control? does actually either #party have #control?

okay, so one can #block other #users a means of exercising some form of control.. but in order to do so one has to be #aware of their existence.. #something that only happens when that #user makes their #presence #known.. the element of #voyeurism remains in #place through #secrecy in the act of #looking and #listening.. by #revealing oneself one removes that #element.. but herein lies the #notion of #consent. ie: #i #watch you because #you allow it..you #gift me that #insight..i #perform because you #wish to watch #me..you gift me my #stage. but what happens when #either #party wishes for #more?

we can #reply.. we can #retweet.. we can #follow.. we can be a #follower.. is any of this #enough? in a #rightbrain experience could #any of this be #enough? in #theory an #online #community can #offer so much.. a #chance to #interract with #others #geographically many #miles apart..or metaphorically speaking, form another world. perhaps it affords a #chance to learn, #grow, #share, become conscious of another's #way and #point of view.. but in #practice is this ever the #case?

if you #send a #reply what is your #expected #outcome? if you #receive a #reply do you #respond in turn? do you #share and #interact? how much responsibility must we take in our on-line interactions.. am i obliged to reply to you because you have tweeted me? do i expect a reply because i have tweeted to you? does the #consensual act of #observation and #display give rise to a #dichotomy of sorts? one with #moral and #philosophical subtexts? bearing these #subtexts in mind we #review our #original #question.. what is #twitter for?

causing a stir in fanworld!

2010-03-10T18:15:00.012Z

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..

iron men..

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thistle spotting at twilight

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sushi.. it's a moveable feast!

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good graff find

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leaf prints

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found baby

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rosewater

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back from hades.. man that was a trip!

2010-02-19T04:24:00.003Z

finally getting it together.. it's been far too long.. da doo ron giving up on me like that was no joke.. but so much has happened since then, life truly does go on and forces you kicking and screaming into the fray of it whether you like it or not.. as they say time stops for no woman and me no less than others.. the pink bags have evolved into a fully fledge arts group - inclusive arts - we now have workers, jobs and everything.. so many images to post from the plinth and full backing for the project.. excited and elated but missing him like crazy.. where is he when i need him to advise and guide? space secured for the show to coincide with the one and other book launch in the autumn.. a stitch in time workshops set up and just about funded woo! networked and met some really good artists, one will join us in the near future and expand our circle, researching another comedy powerpoint - this one a treatise on the inverse of celebrity, and post grad nearly in the bag.. running off from the students work posted previously, we got the best results ever, two won the creative future awards and i'm soon to get my saphy membership from a philosophy for children two dayer in march.. just need to bag the artists in schools manager post and i will be a happy bunny... question is will the business allow me to take a full time post.. never expected that inclusive arts would take off so quickly, so many clients out there wanting our service it's fantastic.. it's days like these when i love life, no matter how many curve balls it throws.. universe - i love you!

19th July 2009

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i took to the plinth and my father died.. images will be posted in due course..

totem

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textures

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heron

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hat

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entwistle geese

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sparkles!

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mobile phone versions of dave's fire

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pete's got soul.. the effects of a typical thursday night..

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us as pink bags!

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latest plinth update

2009-07-11T23:45:00.003+01:00

another couple of crazy days.. we did the not part of festival today.. manky manc's answer to the fringe.. it was excellent.. really good fun and we met new peeps.. we danced in the pink bags to an afro brazilian band, nice to meet you juba do leao! and listened to wry ditties from kriss foster - whose artwork is equally as cute as his songs.. meaning that most literally.. a very sharp man.. afterwards though we were absolutely done in.. so hot but really happy! yesterday i had a good phonecall with andy from REDD who seems very supportive of the post plinth show, so they are going to sort the shop space by the sounds of it.. chuffed! the plan continues to unfold and i cant wait to get to london next week.. also some positive response to the press release from work, i'm to get a call from ben soon from the LEP.. cheers wayne! so it's motoring.. i can really see the work in my mind now - nelson's column rearing up above our heads and the national in an almost spherical perspective bulbous behind.. ace!

plinth update

2009-07-09T11:45:00.003+01:00

it's been a while since i manged to make a blog entry.. things have been so hectic it's crazy busy time preparing for the plinth, and also seeing my dad who is in intensive care each day. thankfully he has cancelled his date with the grim reaper some four times over the last fortnight, so we're hoping that's a permanent arrangement - well for now anyway! but it's meant i havent had the time each day to make an entry so here we go.. time right now to update: things have moved forward somewhat, i've had some press about the project and am now looking for a space to house the product in onces it's created. i'm meeting rebecca and jane from creative industries bolton today, hopefully to get some print sponsorship. the intention with the product is to create a photo-montage in a 3D format, which i can use to line a room enabling the viewer to literally place themselves on the plinth, as if they were a plinther themselves, within the traflagar square environement - if that makes sense! fantastically louise, my bosom buddy and partner in many art crimes, has also secured a place on the plinth about a month after me! the universe so loves us two, so we intend to amalagamate our product, her sound with my visuals, to create a really sensory experience. she intends to capture sounds whilst on the plinth and use them to make a sound sculpture of the experience. i think she may also have a bit of spoken word going on in there too.. sounds fab! we've had interest from a local gallery - neo artists - who seem to want to show the work, but logistically it may be that their space is unsuitable. i really want a disused shop space or something similar, as i want the work to be accessable by all and in an everyday type setting. it's important to me to keep with the theme of inclusivity, and as we all know, galleries are hardly that! however, they have managed to secure some empty shop spaces themselves so hopefully something may come together in this vein. the one and other website is now streaming the event and i am asking people to pledge to watch me - an option on the website - so if you find me, in plinthers week 2, then please do! work seem supportive of our projects, both hers and mine, and our PR officer sent me a draft copy of their press release, which only needed a little tweeking here and there.. i'm not sure mr. gormley would appreciate being referred to as andrew so i had to amend that bit! but for now things are moving and the support i am getting is amazing. i've agreed to wear a tee shirt for an organisation called the children's trust for a little while up there, all power to them, and as the boyf works for a very similar organisation, how could i refuse their request? hopefully i will get another moment today to blog, as the meetings i am having in the next few hours could be instrumental so after the private view of neo-artists latest offerings i will get back to you ..

emerging talent - our show

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