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CONTACT ME
COPYRIGHT
All content (words and images)
© Harriet Duncan
2004
(unless explicitly quoted or credited)
Please link if you quote and ask permission to use images.
READ ME (disclaimer)
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In the Aquarium
Preface
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In Brief
10 Things
- The most useful thing I did while at college was teach myself to touch type – I am convinced this is the only reason I have a job today. That and the fact that I used to cat sit for neighbours and one of them needed help at work one day and gave me a temporary position.
- I’m a Taurean. I don’t know the significance of this but Blue Witch did a survey about bloggers and star signs in mid-2003. I like having been born in spring. And interestingly my life is full of other taureans - I get along with them famously (Bails, boyfiend, MS, many of my colleagues).
- I’m an ENFP (Extrovert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Percieving). The Visionary or Idealist type. This type is likely to: want to help; anticipate the needs of others; want to be liked and admired by others on an individual and humanitarian level; be enthusiastic; have zany charm; be unconventional, outgoing, fun; like people; follow a non-linear career path; get bored quickly; procrastinate and hate beaurocracy (these are not my terms but actually it is quite like me). Try a version of the Myers Briggs Temperament Sorter type test here.
- I’m an Enthusiast (entertainer) – basic type 7 wing of 6. Rheti Sampler Personality Test on the Enneagram Institute website – which among other things means I’m prone to flamboyant exaggeration.
- I’m an ex-commuter but now work very close to home. I never thought I would but I miss the journey because I hardly ever find the time to read books anymore.
- There are only 2 novels that I failed to finish: The Dirty Havana Trilogy (just got sick of reading about sex in filthy places with rotten milk and nasty neighbourhood girls) and American Psycho (was reading it on the way to work and got to the point in the book where I was worried that anyone might be reading over my shoulder first thing in the morning – it was brutal, violent and I felt inappropriate at that time of day and in that place). I’d never thought of myself as prudey before that.
- I make a lot of clothes. Particularly coats. My most successful coat was the Japanese World Cup Coat – I made it for the summer that the World Cup was held in Japan and Korea – I embroidered a Japanese dragon onto the side of it and a red circle across the front (one half on each side of the opening). People love that coat. The dragon looks a little bit too much like a crocodile in the face but I try to not let it worry me.
- I was born at St Bartholemews Hospital, which is within the sound of Bow Bells – making me a true cockney. Sadly I have not been able to be true to my roots because my father hated the accent and would never let me adopt it. However it could go some way to explain my love of shiny things and theatrical dress (I did so admire the pearly kings and queens in my formative years).
- My other ambition as kid was to have big tits and rollerskates. I still haven’t learnt how to roller skate.
- I’m a north-of-the-river girl, always lived over here. Don't know why but London is very much a quartered city and I always suffered from that thing that Londoners' get when they are tied to a specific part of town – other parts of town feel totally alien. When I first started working in Lewisham I felt like I should be carrying my passport to cross the river into deepest south London. I have since gotten over it in relation to south but still feel it when travelling west.
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BACK TO
In the Aquarium
The Interview
What is In the Aquarium?
In the Aquarium is my weblog. I am also using it as a place to put some poetry, other writing, photographs and drawings.
the questions
Why did you call it In the Aquarium?
I wanted a title that summed up the fact that we are constantly looking out at the world and it is looking in, or looking at my life like a soap opera. I would have gone by preference for Fishbowl, or Soap Suds or Soap Bubbles or just Bubbles. However I was setting it up with Blogger and all the titles I chose first were taken. I actually think this is a little less clichéd and sounds a bit more serious, so in the end I’m happy with it.
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the questions
What came first the title or the blog?
In order to set up the blog I had to choose a title. I took some time to choose it based on what I thought I was going to write about. So the title was there before I wrote anything.
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the questions
You say you chose a title based on what you thought you were going to write about, does that mean that the title has had an influence on what you actually write about?
In the beginning I was going to write about my life – taking a structure of sorts and building posts on that structure – using the routine of my actual life to create the written structure. I thought I was going to write about the office, day to day stuff etc. I have found that I prefer to write about the things that I see, overhear, witness etc – those things that pass you by and you feel you have to tell someone (for say half an hour), if you tell someone it’s a story but if you don’t tell its forgotten – know what I mean? So in some respects I think that if I had called it Soap Suds it would have been a completely different blog.
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the questions
What is the significance of the sub-title?
I am a Londoner. I wanted it to be clear it was about a Londoner. It places the blog for the reader. When I was first looking at blogs I thought it was important to be able to gauge where it was in order to know something about who it was – as a term of reference perhaps.
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the questions
So why has it taken so long for you to put up an about section?
I thought there was enough info around the blog for the audience to figure out where I was at – clues, my picture, the first post told my age, my favourite books list, current music – these could give an understanding of me. However a couple of times readers / reviewers have either wanted or needed more explicit details or pointers.
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the questions
London features quite heavily – what affinity do you have with London?
I was born here and have lived here all my life. Although I am half American, quarter Scottish and quarter English I find that I only really feel like a Londoner (as opposed to British or American for instance). I have many friends who are not born but reside here; frequently they have periods of hating London, being desperate to leave. What I wanted to share were the things that keep me entertained and interested in London – the people, the buildings, the places – the fabric of the city from my perspective.
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the questions
Is it a blog about London or is it a blog about you?
Somewhere in the middle – I thought it was about me, until I was asked this question by Adam of Anthroblog, but on reflection it is much less about me than it is about what I see going on around me. I think it has become more about London and Londoners than it is about me personally or perhaps about my take on London & Londoners, maybe…
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the questions
Are you a writer?
I would never count myself as a writer – I have never earned money from writing. Before now I have rarely shared my writing with anybody. But I have always written in some form or other – as a means to self expression usually. I really started writing again more regularly when my mother died – poems (see Other Writing). And then when I started texting a lot I started sending messages about what I was seeing to my partner on my commutes to and from work. I always felt a bit vulnerable about showing people what I had written – it was a bit too personal to get a negative opinion about. I am really what Salena Saliva once scathingly referred to as a bedroom poet.
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the questions
Have you ever kept a diary?
I have in the past kept traditional diaries – ones with a day per page on which I would start the year writing everything and end in about April when the effort of finding something interesting to write about overcame me. I had a friend once who read one of them and I decided that the thoughts I kept in them were too personal to be on paper. Since being with my current partner I have destroyed all the old diaries. Reading them was
a) cringe worthy (I would rather not be associated with the teenage angst and drivel that was between the pages) and
b) a look at a person who I have grown out of.
Therefore I decided it would be less incriminating and less frank to have them around. I wasn’t really a diarist – it didn’t absorb the world around me – was definitely self-obsessed. Anyway, it’s nicer to remember things with the rose-tinted spectacles of time.
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the questions
How did you get involved in blogging?
A friend of mine is a student at Goldsmiths University – she was telling us about her tutor’s blog one day. She felt she had overstepped the mark by emailing him about one of his posts – she was concerned he would get the wrong idea about her intentions etc etc. She was talking about how she knew him much more than he knew her and more than she would normally know any of her tutors because she was reading his blog.
I didn’t know what a blog was. So I went off and put blog into google. And started reading. The first blogs I came across were ones by small town Americans talking about their day – one particular one sticks in my mind – so and so went to the beach to roller blade, it was great… Eventually I found Swish Cottage (now sadly not blogging) – which said much more to me – painting a picture that was familiar in a familiar tone. Soon after that I also found Diamond Geezer. And I felt like I needed to try it.
I thought about it for a while, thought about a title, thought about what I would write about. Decided it would definitely be for writing rather than as a linking, opinion sort of thing. At that moment most blogs I came across were blogger ones. So I joined them because they were free. And then I paid a subscription because I wanted to up load pictures.
I first posted on 24 April 2003 but didn’t get the courage up to go public until 14 May 2003. It was very daunting to me. I didn’t know what anyone would think. Thankfully your presence on the web takes time to be noticed, so I had some time of writing and posting to get used to it before visitors started to arrive.
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the questions
How did you arrive at the design?
I basically chose one of the design templates that Blogger has – but changed the colours. It has compartments defined by a border and colour which suits the way I wanted to lay it out. Because it is still suiting my needs I have seen no point in changing it yet.
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the questions
What’s with the life drawings?
In the beginning I wanted to have a structure to the posts that was about my week – like routine. I have been going to a life drawing class since January 2003. Life drawing isn’t really a finished product – its an exercise – I wanted to get back into drawing. I personally have found it interesting to have the drawings there – when I look back over the months I have been blogging they have improved dramatically. Also I think it gives the blog some additional structure. If I hadn’t started the life class I don’t think I would have had the creative urge to start blogging.
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the questions
Ok, you said you wanted to get back into drawing?
I studied art at university – Three Dimensional Design – which actually can be quite far removed from art in some intepretations. Once I left there I didn’t draw at all – even though it was one of my favourite things. The degree focussed so rigidly on function that I got really stuck creatively. 2003 was a year (in hindsight) that help me to rediscover some creativity – just for fun really but I’ve found it really exciting. I use the drawing class as a motivator really – its great to do something totally different from work, use a different part of the brain, a more physical and expressive task.
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the questions
The Weblog Review said your site was great for you and your friends. Who do you see as your audience?
Interestingly I thought my friends would read my blog – many of them share my sense of humour. However, I find that nearly none of them read it at all. I really don’t write the blog for my friends because they are largely uninterested. By the time I realised this I found I had a fairly regular small readership made up of people from the blogosphere who had noticed me being there. One or two people linked to me – which was very exciting – sort of like a validation from the people who count – including Invisible Stranger, Big n Juicy and Chasing Daisy. Then the audience steadily grew after I started commenting on other people’s blogs more – which I plucked up the courage to do more frequently during the fantastic Blog Me Week in September 2003, started by Blue Witch.
So, I think the blog is aimed at those who understand and appreciate the self-depreciating humour that we employ in Britain, and those who want to read snippets of life rather than long discursive articles on serious subjects (not knocking these its just not what I’m writing at present). The actual audience is varied and spread around the world judging by the referrers and linkage.
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the questions
Do you have any other blogs?
Yes, I don’t know why I did it but when I first started In the Aquarium I decided I would also start one where I would review all the things I went to see and do – concerts, plays, exhibitions, etc. I called it Seen. It is periodically updated (whenever I see something). I try to write about all the things I go to even if I hate them. I can’t remember now why I thought it would be good to be separate – apart from perhaps so it was easier to find the reviews because they would all be in one place.
I also started a Phlog – which is a photo mob blog – a blog to which you can send camera phone pictures directly from the phone. I intended to send one picture every day. Its hard to find a good picture some days because I am too preoccupied. So in reality some days I send several and other days I send none. It gives me something to use the phone camera for. I think its like capturing a second’s worth of thought while the main blog is like capturing a train of thought. And I quite like the quality of the phone-camera’s images – not quite realistic, hard to line up accurately, ropey quality – so you are never quite sure what you are getting. I like the chancy nature of it.
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the questions
Why do you refer to people by their initials?
To preserve their privacy. I don’t want people to feel compromised by being mentioned on the web. I read a book which had some advice for bloggers including how not to lose friends and make enemies of colleagues. While I sponge off the world around me for material I wouldn’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable about me reporting something or quoting what they have said. So a. I have been quite honest about the fact that I blog, b. I don’t use it as a place to slag off my work or friends or moan (much) about my life. I prefer to keep it anecdotal and observational.
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the questions
So do they mind having their picture on the web?
I haven’t put pictures up of friends without asking them but if they were upset by it and asked me to remove it I would. The only friend I put up a lot of is bails. And she doesn’t mind at all (I think she’s an exhibitionist at heart)...
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the questions
Why do you use photos?
To illustrate (sometimes) and other times I’m trying to be more artistic. I have felt when looking back on it that I should dispense with the illustrative, especially when they are not good. So I go through fits and starts really – sometimes I want to plaster it with pictures and then do so for a while and later decide it looks better more sparsely illustrated.
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the questions
So you aren’t happy with every little thing then?
Not entirely. It’s the nature of the blog really – it isn’t a finished work its under development at all times, very much a non-finished article, more like a sketchbook than a masterpiece – little bit of this and that drawn together in one place – showing the workings of my mind to some extent.
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the questions
Do you draft-write and plan or just do it spontaneously?
A mixture. Sometimes I will make a note of something that I’ve seen or heard for later (I don’t blog during the working day, so have to keep notes to remind myself of stuff I think might be worthy) and other times I just write directly from my head into blogger.
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the questions
OK, lets wrap this up, um, do you subscribe to any magazines?
Only .net at the moment. I used to subscribe to Artists Newsletter back in the college days. But I’m not really a magazine person – for some reason I can’t be bothered to read the articles in them unless they are really short.
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the questions
Any memberships?
Tate Member, Medicine Bar (now defunct – keep the card in case I need to break into my office, spread glue or other such use). I used to belong to the ICA.
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the questions
Long or short sighted?
Short (sadly – hate having poor sight – it feels like a terrible failure).
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the questions
Beer or wine?
Wine (can’t stand beer) but by preference Kahlua.
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the questions
Thank you for your time, its been a pleasure.
You're welcome.
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the questions
BACK TO
In the Aquarium
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