Tabitha Tohill-Reid

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Voyeurism is nothing new. 

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The concept of livestreaming yourself having sex whilst an audience of strangers watch, however, is. It’s exactly what many use to get their kicks, whether they’re the ones putting on the show or the observers watching along, often commenting as they go. Chaturbate is one of the most popular webcam sites on the internet; viewers can watch for free or pay tips if they'd like to see certain sex acts performed. This website has been Tabitha Tohill-Reid’s main inspiration when producing a series of 3D models. The models themselves are recreations of these domestic spaces used within amateur porn, but with one difference, the performers are no longer present.

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In exchange, on display is the performer's location and live message, denoted only by the architectural text tool provided by the software. The viewer is left with this echo of the performer; a suggestion of what once was. We’re left considering the potential of absence rather than the satiety of presence. It's an emptiness, but you are given the possibility to imagine what is missing. In the same way that audience members on the site are able to request to see whatever comes to their imagination, we too are left to our own imaginations to animate these vacant sets.

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Tabitha Tohill-Reid is interested in digital tenderness and intimacy, how sex is explored and engaged with physio-digitally and the role voyeurism plays within this. By creating these interactive models and removing the central sexual stimuli from the "scene" they invite the viewer to consider digital sexual dissemination, intimate spaces, and the physicality of the digital realm.