Simulacra And Simulations

AAAAARRRGH!

Before Easter I applied for the job of Project Officer at the Cathedral – the role would've been ideal to compliment my other work, but I have not been successful despite the fact that I possess all the criteria asked for in the job description.

Career advice offered by Yahoo news detailing recession proof professions, recommends that HR Redundancy skills are highly desirable in the current economic climate – I have therefore been practising firing people….. apparently RBS are the top company for redundancies, so therefore I will apply to work there after a short self-induced training period….. Yes, the world is finally going completely mad!

I went out instead and stuck Lady of Shalott mirrors around the city and photographed them, and a local writer wanted artists to submit images for a magazine, so I've done that in the hope of gaining some publicity…

Because this blog takes so long to upload photos, here is the link to the images on Facebook, which uploads photos instantly from iphoto:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=244266&id=85…

But just now I have received an email from University Opportunities advertising a position for ORGANISER with the local business group – VOLUNTARY. The job description, including hours is worth at least 15k, and I am becoming increasingly angry at adverts such as this trying to exploit undergraduates and graduates.

My mother says that voluntary work is for well off retired people, I would add community service to that. Here is a link to employment rights:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/i…

Need I send them a copy of my student loan repayment criteria? I refuse to be exploited, and I hope no one accepts the job, despite it otherwise being a good opportunity… good enough to pay a living, working wage though.

Now I must carry on with more important business proposals. I have a presentation on Monday and I have no idea how to calculate estimated costs and overheads for an accurate financial projection. I'm not an accountant. But at least the kids are at school again, so I can continue where I left off before.

So I'm starting to feel like a fish out of water, this'll be interesting….

Since I last wrote in here, I've been off for Easter. I really enjoyed my first Easter, post – degree. It was worth reflecting on the fact that last year I never really had a break. I was working on stuff until Good Friday, went away to visit family for Easter and felt irritable because I wasn't working, yet also irritated that no one wanted to celebrate Easter in church.

So this year I've had a proper Easter holiday. I stayed at home with the kids, got up really early to attend a really lovely church service (which in my imagination ended up rather like an episode of Father Ted or The Vicar of Dibley – let's just say the vicar held Communion and then she insisted on sausage sandwiches…!)

I didn't pack in a hurry, I didn't travel anywhere, I didn't spend any money – despite what the curator of a Leicester Space museum said on the news recently, families ARE staying at home because of the credit crunch – my outgoings are still higher than my income despite my efforts to cut back. The more I try, the more likely it is that someone will try to force me to part with a few extra pounds that don't exist. I'm still existing on Income Support, my overdraft will soon hit the limit and I'm so stressed out at the lack of paid job opportunities that I'm no longer sleeping.

Most nights I don't get to sleep until 4am and then I don't wake up until 11.00ish the next day.

The weather is mostly bright and sunny, but all I can do is wait and hope I get the job I recently applied for.

I have hardly done anything creative at all. I've been tinkering about with odd things, but until the kids go back to school I feel too distracted to really do anything.

I'm not even sure if I can afford to hire a stall at the Artist's Market any more. It's my youngest son's 10th birthday at the end of next month and I don't want to be forced to buy lots of expensive toys that he'll play with for five minutes before declaring boredom.

My status has been for the past week: The Physical Impossibility of Poverty In The Mind Of Someone Banking….

I have now reverted to Tennyson quotes – amid the sleeplessness and distraction I am slowly collating ideas and materials for The Lady Of Shalott, dolls, and related thought-provoking mini installations….

I went for a meeting to discuss the next stage of the LAN proposal, a presentation in front of judges after Easter. I wanted to start working on this straight away, but I was invited to go and support some friends who are doing their MA. It was the last chance to speak to arty adults before the onset of the Easter holidays, and I'll be lucky if I get much done with kids at home for two weeks, and my own capacity to get over-emotional knowing the actual significance of Easter as a practising Christian.

So, there's a special section for parents now – as such I would like to point out my delight at reading about Harriet Harman's legislation granting flexible working rights for parents of children over 6:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090406/tuk-flexible-w…

It could offer me some relief in my jobsearching, as I have the even harder task of being a single parent.

I have recently applied for a part time job that would be PERFECT for me, and I'm giving it the Easter holidays to find out if I'm invited to interview.

Otherwise, I've decided to make a new doll. Granted, the doll gallery still needs final touches, but I have several things in mind, one of which is the forthcoming Lincoln Artist's Market. I plan to hire a stall and sell some original illustrated postcards etc.

To tie in with the fact that Lincoln will be celebrating the birth of Alfred Lord Tennyson, I want to make a Lady Of Shalott doll.

John William Waterhouse' original painting will be on loan to The Collection over the summer, and I do love the Pre-Raphaelites – I can't wait to go and see it!

You may remember that over Christmas someone bought me a strange doll thing with a mirror for a head. I've been playing with that, but I will make something less freakish!

I have some good news!

After submitting a proposal for the LAN for the Winning Ideas competition and it has successfully passed the first stage, and is shortlisted to become a finalist!

This means the Lincoln Artist Network stands a good chance of gaining some funding and getting going :-)

I have set up a very rickety website for the group here: http://sites.google.com/site/lincolnartistnetwork/

Luckily, the AOI brief deadline has been extended, and it seems – as I have spent most of the week listening to the soundtrack from the 1980s classic anime cartoon Ulysses 31- that the Gods have been less capricious than usual, considering that my boiler has gone, and the electricity refused to work as well – I had to get an electrician to come and check it. The boiler won't be fixed until Wednesday.

I did not kill the giant Cyclops, so I do not understand why the Gods are so angry with me, but Zeus is reknowned for his terrible temper tantrums….. (my son is doing Greek myths at school, that's my excuse!) I do feel like Ulysses much of the time, having been banished to unknown space, to travel among unknown stars… such is the life of a single parent!

Anyway, Greek analogy aside, it's interesting, because I was invited to an artist's talk by Lynsey Seers. I had seen her work in The Collection a while ago, and wondered what it was all about. She made herself into a camera, photographing things in Sir Isaac Newton's garden using her mouth as a pinhole camera…. strange.

But now she has explained her practice, there are elements that mirror my own, even though she goes about it in a very different way. She is influenced by Vilem Flusser, and a brief skim read tells me that he has similar theories to Baudrillard, and in another one of those coincidences that frequently happen to me, he also talks about Ulysses and the meanings of polymechanikos, the Trojan Horse, and theories about materiality and reality. It relates to the precession of the simulacra, which is integral to my work. Baudrillard describes it as a map that covers the entire territory such that it becomes more real than the world itself. A bit like Google Earth…..

So, I have been so distracted by the faulty boiler, faulty electrics and the wrath of Zeus (!) that I didn't make it to the Private View for The Golden Record.

I have submitted some of my work for it here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/goldenrecord/pool/

but if it was selected by John Hegley I'll never know now. At least, I might drop by and go and see the exhibition when I get time… by the great galaxies!