THE FAN STUDIES NETWORK SYMPOSIUM
30TH NOVEMBER 2013
SCHOOL OF POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA
PROGRAMME
09:00 – 09:30: REGISTRATION
09:30 – 10:30: KEYNOTE
Professor Matt Hills (Aberystwyth University)
TPSC Lecture Theatre
10:30 – 10:45: BREAK
10:45 – 12:00: PARALLEL PANELS
Panel A: Spaces and Performance (Chair: Tom Phillips)
TPSC Lecture Theatre
Panel B: Celebrity (Chair: Sarah Ralph)
TPSC 0.1
12:00 – 13:00: LUNCH
13:00 – 14:30: PARALLEL PANELS
Panel C: Gender (Chair: Bertha Chin)
TPSC Lecture Theatre
Panel D: Classic Fandoms, New Narratives (Chair: Ruth Deller)
TPSC 0.1
14:30 – 14:45: BREAK
14:45 – 16:00: SPEED GEEKING (Chair: Richard McCulloch)
TPSC 0.1
16:00 – 16:15: BREAK
16:15 – 17:45: PARALLEL PANELS
Panel E: Transculture (Chair: Nele Noppe)
TPSC Lecture Theatre
Panel F: Textualities (Chair: Bethan Jones)
TPSC 0.1
17:45 – 18:00: CLOSE
Lucy Bennett & Tom Phillips (Fan Studies Network)
TPSC Lecture Theatre
18:00 – 19:00: WINE RECEPTION
PANELS
A: Spaces and Performance
Chair: Tom Phillips (UEA)
Lincoln Geraghty (Portsmouth) Marketing Mainstream Cult: Forbidden Planet and
the Spaces of Comic Book Fandom
Nicolle Lamerichs (Maastricht) Cosplay: Material and transmedial culture in play
Rosana Vivar Navas (Granada) Genre Film Fandom and Festivity in Spain: Notes on
San Sebastian Horror and Fantasy Film Festival, 2012-2013
B: Celebrity
Chair: Sarah Ralph (UEA)
Helena Dare-Edwards (UEA) Boy Band with a Secret?: The Larry Stylinson Fandom
and Real Person Slash in the Age of Social Media
Mark Duffett (University of Chester) ‘When the Hero is Hurt, He is at His Most
Vulnerable’: Rethinking Hurt / Comfort
Markus Wohlfeil (UEA) Catching Fire? New Insights into the Nature of Fans’
Parasocial ‘Romantic’ Relationships with a Celebrity
C: Gender
Chair: Bertha Chin (Independent)
Carrie Dunn & Deirdre Hynes (Manchester Metropolitan University) Community,
authenticity and sexism: the online and offline experience of female football fans
Bethan Jones (Aberystwyth) Fifty Shades of Domestic Violence: Anti-Fan Activism in
Response to Fifty Shades
Bridget Kies (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) Homo-genizing Producer-Fan
Relations in Popular Television
Heike Missler (Saarland) Chick-lit Fandom - Postfeminist Activism or Affective
Economics?
D: Classic Fandoms, New Narratives
Chair: Ruth Deller (Sheffield Hallam)
Amber Hutchins (Kennesaw State University) Frenemies and Fanagement in the
Magic Kingdom: Disney Fan Culture and Brand-Fan Relationships
Lies Lanckman (Kent) ‘Fawning Over Dead Celebrities’: Classic Hollywood Fandom
and the Twenty-First Century
Richard McCulloch (Regent’s University, UK) A Game of Moans: Negotiating
Negativity in Football Fandom
Natasha Whiteman (University of Leicester) Fans, Obsolescence and InSecurity: ‘The
Return’ of the Commodore Amiga
E: Transculture
Chair: Nele Noppe (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium)
Bertha Chin (Independent) A glimpse into the transcultural fandom of (Green) Arrow
in China
Ekky Imanjaya (UEA) Rediscovering “Crazy Indonesia”: Classic Indonesian
Exploitation Cinema according to 2000s Western Cult Fans
John McManus (Oxford) Fandom in the diaspora: the case of Turkish football fans in
Europe
Anne Peirson-Smith (City University of Hong Kong) Living Dolls: an examination of
the affective motivations and creative agency of ball-jointed doll fans
F: Textualities
Chair: Bethan Jones (Aberystwyth)
Hannah Ellison (UEA) AfterEllen’s #Gaydybunch and #BooRadleyVanCullen: Twitter
second screeners and third party curated viewing
Anne Kustritz (University of Amsterdam) Fan Ontologies and the Pleasure Principle:
Aesthetic, Analytic, and Narrative Persuasion in Transformative Works
Andrea Nevitt (Keele) The Expectations and Evaluations of Game of Thrones Fans
before and after the televised “Red Wedding”
Billy Proctor (Sunderland) Time’s Arrow: Continuity, Canon and Fanon
SPEED GEEKING
CHAIR: Richard McCulloch (Regent’s University, UK)
Speed geeking sessions involve each speaker chairing a short discussion to small
groups on a relevant topic of their choosing. The small group then provides extensive
feedback, making it ideal for presenting in-progress or undeveloped ideas.
Nancy Bruseker (University of Liverpool) One Direction and Teenage Fandom
Alice Chauvel (Independent) Fans of Fan Practice
Ruth Deller (Sheffield Hallam) Of Simblrs and Simstagram: Sim-ifying Social Media
Simone Driessen (Erasmus University Rotterdam) Aging Minds and popular music
Emma England (University of Amsterdam) The Separation of Fan Histories
Claire Evans (Independent) Fan practices and identity in motorsport
Craig Hamilton (Birmingham City University) The Harkive Project
Nele Noppe (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium) How thinking of monetized
fanworks as "open source cultural goods" can help fans and rights holders
Mafalda Stasi and Adrienne Evans (Coventry University) Methods in their Madness:
New Directions in Fan Studies Research
ABSTRACTS
KEYNOTE
Matt Hills (Aberystwyth University)
Location, location, location: Info-war and citizen-fan “set reporting” within public
spheres of the imagination
Perhaps one key shift affecting recent popular culture has been a move from the
‘reactive audience’ – responding to, reading, and reworking media texts – to
anticipatory fandoms seeking information about media texts far in advance of their
official release and industry PR. The development of “pre-reading” (Gray 2010)
means that within convergence culture, media-savvy fan audiences can be thought
of not so much as textual poachers, but rather as pre-textual poachers. Fans
challenge the brand control of media producers by circulating unofficial news,
rumours, and photos of filming (Hills 2010, 2012 and forthcoming). The phenomenon
of fan “set reporting”, where audiences tweet, blog and upload photos and videos of
location filming, means that story/casting spoilers are increasingly difficult for
producers to shut down. Franchises such as Twilight, Doctor Who and Sherlock have
all had to contend with this new digital mode of fan productivity facilitated by
“miniaturized mobilities” (Elliott and Urry 2010). Far from dematerializing the
importance of location, this fan practice combines immediacy with hypermediation
(Booth 2010), granting authenticity to ‘being there’ and to documenting activities of
media production. Socially-networked fandom (Booth 2012) thus both reinforces the
symbolic centrality of filming sites (e.g. Cardiff for Doctor Who), and brings fans into
conflict with producers in novel ways. Far from being a mysterious process, location
filming has become an increasingly transparent, fan-mediated event, with “citizenfans” debating activities of media production within “public spheres of the
imagination” (Saler 2012), akin to activities of citizen journalism and citizen
witnessing (Gillmor 2006; Allan 2013).
About the presenter:
Matt Hills is Professor of Film and TV Studies at Aberystwyth University. He is the
author of five books including Fan Cultures (2002) and Triumph of a Time Lord:
Regenerating Doctor Who in the Twenty-first Century (2010), as well as the editor of
New Dimensions of Doctor Who (2013). Matt has published widely on cult media
and fandom. He is an Associate Editor on Cinema Journal and a regular reviewer for
doctorwhonews.net.
PANELS
Bertha Chin (Independent)
A glimpse into the transcultural fandom of (Green) Arrow in China
In June 2013, Stephen Amell, star of the American TV series, Arrow, arrived at Beijing
Capital International Airport to be greeted by about 40 fans bearing gifts who have
gone specifically to welcome him to China. The next day, Amell attended a Q&A
event attended by 100 fans that was organised by a local TV station. These types of
smaller meet-and-greet fan events are common in East Asian countries, where local
celebrities often meet and interact with their fan club members. While the fan event
was not considered large by Western standards, the turnout and subsequent sharing
of photos and videos of Amell’s trip on Tumblr by fans gives us an interesting insight
into the transcultural fandom of Arrow and Amell in an East Asian country.
Amell’s trip is no longer a rare event for Chinese fans of popular American TV shows.
Perhaps more importantly, it also shows the importance Hollywood studios and
networks place in courting the Chinese market. Asides from these promotional tours,
Hollywood celebrities’ social media networks are translated into Chinese by a digital
media platform called FansTang and transmitted through China’s popular social
media channels like Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter.
Fan studies has offered us glimpses into the rich and complex interactions in
fandom, but these are often rooted in the practices of North American and European
fandoms. FansTang’s success and in particular, Amell’s reception in China suggest
that fandom transcends national boundaries, into territories where Western pop
culture may not necessarily be the norm. However, these popular texts may become
increasingly accessible as the Chinese market grows more important, and this is
further facilitated by the Internet and social media networks. Using Amell’s trip to
China as an example, I will look at the fan reception of Amell (and Arrow), focusing
on how it might provide an extra dimension towards a more effective transcultural
fan theory.
Helena Dare-Edwards (University of East Anglia)
Boy Band with a Secret?: The Larry Stylinson Fandom and Real Person Slash in the
Age of Social Media
Since the boy band One Direction was formed on The X Factor in 2010 a
controversial subsection of fans, primarily comprised of teenage girls, have devoted
themselves to the real person slash (RPS) pairing of Harry Styles and Louis
Tomlinson, otherwise known as ‘Larry Stylinson’. While RPS fandoms have long
relied on the disclaimer that their creations are not real (Busse, 2006) Larry shippers
insist that the two band members are involved in a secret-not-so-secret romantic
relationship that is being forced to remain ‘in the closet’ according to the demands
of One Direction’s management. Blurring the lines between shipping and tinhatting ,
and favouring ‘evidence’ construction over fictional narratives, I argue that the Larry
fandom represents a generational shift in the form and practice of RPS which has
been further complicated by the dominance of social media.
This paper will explore the polarization of fans across two different social media
platforms, Tumblr and Twitter, and the internal politics that govern their use in this
RPS fandom. Although blogs are publicly accessible, Tumblr is perceived as a safe
and protected fan space in which to interact without the popstars’ knowledge or the
prying eyes of the media. Fiercely protective over their fandom, Larry shippers
condemn the use of Twitter for its role in exposing their fannish behaviour to the
boys, while simultaneously utilising it to express their distress at their unveiling.
Taking this into account, I will then consider the way tweets function as a form of
narrative discourse that the Tumblr community draw upon in their compilation of
Larry ‘evidence’.
Although Hellekson and Busse (2006) state that the Internet age has re-written
traditional fandom rules; namely, to never write slash based on real people, I wish to
re-open this debate by questioning how RPS is once-more potentially ‘risky’ in the
age of social networking.
Mark Duffett (University of Chester)
“When the Hero is Hurt, He is at His Most Vulnerable”: Rethinking Hurt / Comfort
“Although hurt / comfort has only been labled as an explicit genre within fannish
literatures, it is yet another structure that connects amateur and professional texts.”
– Elizabeth Woledge (in Hellekson and Busse 2006, 110)
In the Fiskean tradition particular ‘prosumption’ practices, such as fanfic writing,
have been highlighted as indications of a creative and potentially resistant audience.
I wish to argue, however, that their implied counterpart - passive consumption - has
always been a myth, particularly in relation to affectively invested audiences. More
specifically, in this paper I depart from the usual assignation of hurt/comfort as a
misunderstood subgenre of fan fiction to explore the idea that a common form of
audience identification has prompted a long-running sadomasochistic impulse in
popular culture. Beyond television fanfic, my illustrations will come from the cultural
fields of three popular musicians: Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber.
Beginning with the assumption that all cultural practices are active allows us to
question an implied theoretical distinction between “active” fiction writers and
“passive” viewers. It allows us to see fiction writing as part of a wider process of
collusion in which both media professionals and paying audience members
investigate affectively rewarding cultural forms.
Carrie Dunn and Deirdre Hynes (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Community, authenticity and sexism: the online and offline experience of female
football fans
This paper examines the negative experiences of sexism reported by female football
fans in two strands of football fan activism – the online forum and the cooperative
supporters' trust movement. It draws on two studies, one looking at the broad
experience of female fans in men's football in England, which used data from 100
questionnaires and 27 responsive interviews; and one drawing on the online and
offline experiences of 16 female football fans through online interviews and
participant observations of online forums.
It begins by looking at definitions of and the concept of community, and examines
why community is such a significant part of the football fan experience. It then
moves on to more closely interrogate the operation of the digital community and
democratic/cooperative supporters' trust community, and explores why
respondents choose these particular communities as opposed to any others, such as
traditional supporters' clubs.
It goes on to address questions of performativity of identity, showing that female
fans feel the need to hide their femaleness when discussing football online. Similarly,
when they take a public role in a supporters' trust they work to present their
femaleness in an 'acceptable' way, behaving as much like their male counterparts as
possible and not wishing to be identified as 'female fans', but simply as fans.
Both sets of respondents reported a fear that being too overtly traditionally
'feminine' would detract from the authenticity of their fandom. 'Femaleness' is not a
quality linked with authentic fandom in men's football, and thus they sought to
minimise it wherever possible in order to prove their fandom to those outside their
real-world close fan network.
Hannah Ellison (University of East Anglia)
AfterEllen’s #Gaydybunch and #BooRadleyVanCullen: Twitter second screeners
and third party curated viewing
‘second screening’ is becoming increasingly prevalent, last year Nielsen research
discovered that 70% of tablet owners and 68% of smartphone owners used them
while watching television. This paper looks at a specific group of twitter second
screeners, asking what this means for the consumed television text.
Over the past three years the TV recap writers of lesbian entertainment website
AfterEllen have been live-tweeting television shows they recap. Creating their own
hashtags for each show they cover (ones that sometimes trend worldwide) and
asking fans to contribute, the writers create ad hoc viewing communities, curated
backchannels that police negotiated readings. AfterEllen’s hastags work to create an
unofficial official conversation about lesbian relationships on these shows, whether
perceived or actual; some of the shows do not feature lesbian characters.
While shows like The Fosters (ABCF, 2013) broadcast their own hashtags to use,
AfterEllen forms a sub viewing group, one that highlights certain aspects and ignores
others. It facilitates a curated viewing experience in which people are brought
together to watch a show in a particular way. To have their participation validated in
this “social tv”, viewers must comment on the right things, and in the right way; the
‘best’ tweets are then published in the recaps of episodes, suggesting a proper way
to take part in the conversation.
Examining the twitter and blog output across multiple shows over a four week
period, this paper looks at how these niche social viewing practices are policed and
the kinds of tweets deemed appropriate. It asks how centralised negotiated readings
of subtexts in real-time could affect the notion of the TV narrative and what it means
to have a third party producer re-enforcing top-down shaping of the conversation.
Lincoln Geraghty (University of Portsmouth)
Marketing Mainstream Cult: Forbidden Planet and the Spaces of Comic Book
Fandom
Previous studies of why comics attract devoted fan followings have focussed on the
texts themselves, specifically their narratives, characters and the ever expanding
fictional worlds in which they are set. But what about the spaces of comic book
fandom? Where are comics collected and by whom? If these fantastic stories of
superheroes and villains offer multiple universes that express concerns within
contemporary culture how is this reflected in the rituals of fan consumption? In
exploring these questions this paper examines cultures of consumption and the
adult fans who collect comic books. Focussing on the chain store Forbidden Planet I
argue that there has been a change in shared comic book fan spaces, whereby they
have become less text centred (comics) and more commodity centred (merchandise
and other non comic book ephemera).
Following in the history of the rise of the independent comic book and record stores,
Forbidden Planet has grown to become one of the most recognisable brands for
selling comics, graphic novels, books film and television collectibles, and other cult
merchandise. Building on the style and characteristics of the local retail shop,
Forbidden Planet caters for both mainstream and niche tastes. It promotes both an
image of the alterative and cult as well as keeping up with the latest toy and
merchandise brands. My following analysis of the London Megastore posits that
while cult fandom has entered the mainstream (as argued in Hills, 2010), Forbidden
Planet treads a thin line between both camps: as a physical location it remains a safe
destination for fans to enter and connect with their favourite media texts but also it
performs a role akin to the department store in that it sells something for every type
of fan, whether you are a novice or die-hard collector. In this way, its locality as safe
haven and connective space (including its online shop) serves to underline the
potentially liberating and fulfilling aspects of fandom and cult collecting.
Amber Hutchins (Kennesaw State University)
Frenemies and Fanagement in the Magic Kingdom: Disney Fan Culture and BrandFan Relationships.
Given the global pervasiveness of The Walt Disney Company, Disney fandom is
sometimes considered a rite of passage for almost children. But Disney fan culture
extends beyond consumption of animated films and merchandise, and offers insight
into the tensions between brands and fans (“frenemies”) and the various
subcultures and rituals that emerge among fan communities.
Disney has recently embraced new ways to facilitate fan engagement beyond
“fanagement,” especially among adult Disney fans, who are usually excluded in
studies of Disney audiences. Disney fans have spent the last decade building their
own thriving community, with diverse populations, who believe that Disney films
and theme parks are symbolic representations of their values and beliefs. Online,
fans create and negotiate identities, define the Disney lifestyle, and validate their
loyalty to Disney.
However, fan activity sometimes represents the strained relationship between fans
and the brand. For example, one fan who trespassed into “backstage” areas of
Disney parks and posted videos of his adventures was banned for life from Walt
Disney World, a consequence he found surprising because his videos were intended
to celebrate his dedication to Disney. Bat Days, an annual meeting of “Goth” Disney
fans at Disneyland, is tolerated but not supported by the parks. A recent horror film
shot at Disneyland without permission has just secured theatrical release.
The existing research in this area usually focuses on film audiences, especially
children, rather than fans of the Disney universe. This study will examine the fan
culture, community and media created by high-engagement Disney fans, as well as
outreach efforts on behalf of the brand. Through thematic analysis, this study will
identify ways in which fans engage in participatory culture to expand their
relationship with the brand and each other.
Ekky Imanjaya (University of East Anglia)
Rediscovering “Crazy Indonesia”: Classic Indonesian Exploitation Cinema according
to 2000s Western Cult Fans
Most of Indonesian films recirculated in 2000s international DVD circuits are those
1970s-1990s exploitation Movies. Indonesia’s underrated Filmmakers such as Arizal
and Tjut Tjalil as well as actors such as Barry Prima and Eva Arnaz are among those
who are celebrated by global cult fans. Films like Lady Terminator (Pembalasan
Ratu Laut Selatan), or The Warrior (Jaka Sembung) series are discussed among cult
film fans forums and blogs, but are neglected, abandoned, and underrated in
Indonesia. All the films were originally produced, distributed, and exhibited in
Indonesia during the last 20 years of New Order era by dictatorship of Suharto. A
Greek fan calls it s “Crazy Indonesia”. Some DVD distributors--MondomacabroDVD,
Troma Team, and VideoAsia—label the movies as cult films.
The paper will analyse online fan cultures of Western audiences towards the movies.
I want to elaborate their ideology of subculture: on why and how they celebrate the
films. I argue that there are 2 types of films, that feed Western fans’ tastes: first,
“Indigenous” genre (in Karl Heider’s term) such Legenda (legend, myth,
supernatural), Kumpeni (local <super> heroes in Dutch colonial era), and Silat
(martial art) (Heider 1991) which are considered as exotic, marginalized, peculiar
and unknown to Western cult community; second, Americanized Exploitation
(sub)genres (cannibalism, women in prison, mockbuster, etc.) which perfectly fit
their expectations.
Applying Kozinets’ Netnography, I will examine some fans’ blogs, reviews,
discussions at online forums, and transactions as well as offline events (screenings,
meetings). I will have discourse analysis on the computer mediated communication
produced by the fans, particularly activities at AV Maniac, BackyardAsia,enlejemordersertilbage.blogspot.com, damnthatojeda.wordpress.com, Die
Danger Die Die Kill, and THE_CINEHOUND_FORUM.
Bethan Jones (Aberystwyth University)
Fifty Shades of Patriarchy: Antifandom, lived experience and the role of the
subcultural gatekeeper
In 2012 E.L. James’ Fifty Shades trilogy took the publishing world by storm, and since
its publication, the series has had a near-constant presence across a range of media
platforms. Both the popular press and elements of fandom have derided the novels
as ‘ridiculous’, ‘badly written’ and ‘potentially dangerous’, but the trilogy has also
drawn criticism from other quarters. Many BDSM bloggers have commented on the
inaccurate depiction of BDSM in the series and responded angrily to the framing of
the lifestyle as ‘plain old hetero-patriarchal power relationships’ (Barker,
forthcoming).
Early work in fan studies examined fan activities as forms of resistance, enabling fans
to reclaim ownership of popular culture (Jenkins, 1992; Bacon-Smith, 1992).
Jonathan Gray (2003) and Cornel Sandvoss (2005), however, argue that to fully
understand what it means to interact with texts we must also examine anti-fans. This
article builds on Gray and Sandvoss’ work by examining anti-fandom of the Fifty
Shades series in relation to anti-fans’ lived experiences. I undertake an analysis of
anti-fans with experience in the BDSM community, assessing how their experiences
have affected their readings of and responses to the text. In a similar way to which
Anne Marie Todd (2011) argues that fans accumulate cultural capital in ways that
affect the physicality of their lived experience, I suggest that anti-fans’ lived
experiences allow them to accrue subcultural capital which affects their anti-fandom
(Thornton, 1995). I further argue that the subcultural capital these anti-fans have
accrued as a result of their experience of BDSM positions them as ‘subcultural
gatekeepers’. More than simply ‘snarking’ about the texts (Haig, 2011; Harman and
Jones, forthcoming) they demonstrate an awareness of the paratextual role they
play in affecting readings of the novels (Gray, 2007).
Bridget Kies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Homo-genizing Producer-Fan Relations in Popular Television
Historically, fan studies has concerned itself with examining the often contentious
relationship between producers and fans. Fan practices that attempted to wrangle
control and interpretation of certain television characters were seen as resistant to
producer or authorial intent. The practice receiving the most attention has been the
rendering of male characters who were heterosexual in the source text as
homosexual or bisexual through the creation of slash fan fiction.
Today, however, more and more television programs feature LGBT characters. In
fact, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation noted that the 2012-2013
American primetime line-up featured the most LGBT characters ever. This trend
coincides with increasing legislation for particular LGBT issues across the Western
world – most notably, same-sex marriage – as well as an abundance of celebrity
coming-out stories in the media.
As LGBT presence increases on screen and in mediated stories of celebrities, the kind
of narrative surrounding these characters has changed. Most often, these
characters are depicted as homonormative: they have monogamous same-sex
partnerships and children, and thus emulate hegemonic heterosexuality. Fan
practices, in turn, are no longer resisting narratives about these characters but doing
the same work as other media sources. In this way, fan practice has been
“unqueered” from operating outside authority to colluding with producers.
In this presentation, I will examine homonormative narratives on television and in
related celebrity gossip. I will then demonstrate how fan practices surrounding
these narratives work in conjunction with producer and authorial intent to create a
transmedial circuit: producers create narratives, upon which fans draw for the
creation of fan works and hype, and producers respond by integrating fan works and
hype into future narratives. Through this transmedial circuit, the relationship
between producers and fans has become homogenized.
Anne Kustritz (University of Amsterdam)
Fan Ontologies and the Pleasure Principle: Aesthetic, Analytic, and Narrative
Persuasion in Transformative Works
Although from the perspective of the media industry fan creative works seem to
flow parallel to or outside of the official storyworld, from the perspective of many
readers, fan works fundamentally transform narratives, characters, settings, and
genres, providing a method to not only interact with the existing text, but to
powerfully critique and overwrite the stories produced by the industry. At least
three factors influence the extent to which fan works remain separable, merge with,
or supersede the published narrative: authority, medium, and resonance/pleasure.
In the first instance, the ontological status of fan works is determined by whether or
not individual readers and fan communities invest in the industry or author’s
ultimate right to determine “what really happened.” Investing instead in any fan
author or artist’s vision of the story is a populist freedom that many fans grant
themselves, and which many fan communities support and normalize. In the second
instance, fan works often involve transmediation that can offer information
completely unavailable in the original medium, or compete with meanings created in
the original precisely because they occur in a similar medium and thus construct
critiques and alternate interpretations in a “genre commensurate form.” Finally,
pleasure plays the most important role in fan works. Although many overtly
political, serious fan projects exist, even these often pivot upon the politics of
pleasure – that is, which pleasures and whose pleasures become amplified by the
mass media and which other pleasures become seemingly unimaginable. At their
core, fan works provide authority to whichever version of characters, settings,
events, and genre forms are most pleasurable to imagine. Fan communities amplify
types of pleasures often silenced and sidelined in the mainstream industry, while fan
infrastructure reserves open, uncontrolled space to circulate and share those
pleasures still yet to be imagined.
Nicolle Lamerichs (Maastricht)
Cosplay: Material and transmedial culture in play
Through “cosplay” (costume play) fans perform existing fictional characters in selfcreated costumes and give new meaning to existing stories. Cosplay is a scarcely
studied form of appropriation that transforms and actualizes an existing story or
game in close connection to the fan community and the fan’s own identity
(Lamerichs, 2011; Newman, 2008; Okabe, 2012; Winge, 2006). The activity can be
read as a form of dress up. In the field of game studies, dress up is an often
overlooked but significant category of play with its own affordances (Fron, Fullerton,
Morie, & Pearce, 2007).
I explore the possibilities of reading the costume itself as an object that facilitates
performance and play. I emphasize the visual culture of the costume and its
mediation at different online and offline sites through small-scaled ethnography and
close-reading. The transmediality of cosplay is foregrounded in the methodology
that, rather than adopting a player-centered approach, construes a cultural reading
that involves both participants and spectators (e.g., photographers, fans, media
professionals or outsiders such as parents). Through two case-studies, I focus on the
costume’s materiality and transmediality.
First, I discuss the materiality of cosplay through its consumption culture.
Increasingly, costumes and accessories are sold over platforms as eBay and Etsy
which will illustrate this dynamics. I question the liminal status of the costume as it
lingers between the creative domain of fandom and lucrative domains of media and
creative labor. Second, I investigate the remediation of the cosplay performance. I
exemplify this transmediality through cosplayer music videos (CMV) that are
commonly produced at convention sites. I rely on a selected corpus of videos that
are deeply connected to their source texts but also provide insights in fandom itself.
Thus, I analyze the dynamics of costume culture as it transcends the convention
grounds.
Lies Lanckman (Kent University)
“Fawning Over Dead Celebrities”: Classic Hollywood Fandom and the Twenty-First
Century
The Facebook page Decaying Hollywood Mansions, dedicated to 1910s-1960s
Hollywood imagery, describes itself as “at its best a multi-media spookhouse of
cinema's past, at its worst just me fawning over dead celebrities.” It is but one of
many online resources which have emerged over the course of the past decade
focusing not on contemporary popular culture, but on an earlier time in cinema
history. Whereas classic Hollywood’s original fans have received increasing scholarly
attention throughout the past decade, however, this very recent but widespread
online emergence of a “new-old” fan culture has not thus far been addressed.
As such, this paper aims to be an initial exploration of this phenomenon, beginning
with a categorisation of the different types of online content available, ranging from
top-down informative resources such as IMDB, over fan-made websites or forums
often focusing on one particular star, to various communities within social networks
such as Facebook or Tumblr. I will then compare the functions of these modern
resources with those fulfilled by the key fan community-building resources available
in the classic era: fan magazines.
Looking both at prestigious publications such as Photoplay and at popular fanproduced magazines such as the Joan Crawford Club News (described by one reader
as the first time she “felt she was among those who spoke her own language” ), I
discuss the ways both modern online resources and these older magazines deal with
issues of star image creation and truth, fan input and participation, and fan
identification with one or more particular stars. Additionally, I will reflect on the
difference between fandom and historical interest in terms of these modern fans
and examine how their adoration of “their” stars is impacted by the chronological
gap between star and fan.
Richard McCulloch (Regent’s University, UK)
A Game of Moans: Negotiating Negativity in Football Fandom
Recent scholarly work on anti-fandom has been productive in reminding us that
media texts are not consumed solely for ‘positive’ reasons (Gray, 2002; Pinkowitz,
2011). Nevertheless, the label itself implies an inherent separation between those
who ‘like’ and ‘dislike’ a particular fan object. In this paper, I argue that dislike and
hate are in fact integral components of fandom, especially in relation to sports,
where criticising one’s own team is not only acceptable, but often encouraged. At
what point, then, does criticism become anti-fandom?
Through the analysis of matchday threads on the popular Liverpool Football Club fan
forum Red and White Kop, this paper argues that the line between fandom and antifandom might actually have more to do with shifting insider/outsider discourses
than positive versus negative affect. While this might seem obvious when talking
about rival clubs (Theodoropoulou, 2007), I demonstrate that Liverpool fans
themselves are among the biggest instigators of negative opinions about their team,
its performances, or particular players. Anti-fandom, in other words, is not
necessarily indicative of disagreements within or between fan communities
(Sheffield and Merlo, 2010), but can also function as an everyday, unproblematic
expression of (positive) fandom.
I focus on the balance that fan discourse strikes between praise/optimism and
criticism/pessimism, and the ways in which these extremes are negotiated in
response to victory and defeat. I argue that certain expressions of negativity are
more welcome than others, but that the boundaries and definitions of acceptability
are constantly re-articulated in relation to broader narratives regarding the fortunes
and prospects of the club.
John McManus (Oxford)
Fandom in the diaspora: the case of Turkish football fans in Europe
Can you be a football fan for a team in another city? Manchester United fans from
the south of England have had to put up with jibes questioning their loyalty for some
time now. What about fans in another country? The growth over the last decade of
cheap international transport and internet-mediated communication has turned the
whole question of 'space' 'place' and 'fandom’ on its head (Moores 2012).
This paper proposes a sideways glimpse into some of the processes of constructing
fan communities in the twenty-first century by looking at international fans for the
Turkish football team Beşiktaş. Beşiktaş are one of the most widely followed teams
in Turkey but also have significant numbers of fans across diaspora Turkish
communities in Europe. Based on ethnographic fieldwork – both with social media
online and offline at European Cup matches – the paper teases out the issues
present in the formation of the Beşiktaş fan community. International Beşiktaş fan
practices form an interesting juncture, where ideas of representation online and the
use of technologies (Winner 1999; Latour 2007; Miller and Slater 2000) mingle with
consumption of traditional media (Scannell 2007), diaspora identity (Karim 2003)
and the practices of transnational travel, tourism and mobility (Clifford 1997; Urry
2007).
The paper explores the conflicts and contestations that emerge when ‘Turks’ from a
diverse array of nations, classes and diaspora communities come together in person
to support a Turkish football club. It analyses how new technologies (broadly
defined) are being used to shape individual identity, the spectacle of mass sporting
events and the articulation of political messages. The conclusions it reaches have
implications beyond the realm of fan cultures: namely, how individuals are grappling
with the increasing diversity of possibilities and practices (both online and off)
available to them in processes of dwelling and community creation (Ingold 2011).
Heike Mißler, (Saarland University, Germany)
Chick-lit Fandom - Postfeminist Activism or Affective Economics?
Chick lit is a marketing label for popular fiction written largely by, for and about
women, Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary (1996) and Candace Bushnell's Sex and
the City (1997) being the most highly mediatised examples. Although the genre was
pronounced dead when three publishing houses closed down their chick-lit imprints
in 2008 due to decreasing sales numbers, chick-lit books have continued to be
written, published, and reviewed (cf. Coburn). There has, however, been an
important shift in the production, circulation and reception of the texts: Chick lit has
brought about a prolific online culture, which allows fans not just to network and
connect with other fans, but also with authors and publishers. By doing so, the the
boundaries between authors and readers are blurrying steadily and new
opportunities for female entrepreneurship have been created.
I have analysed a number of chick-lit blogs and conducted email interviews with
their contributors in order to find out how their participation in chick-lit fandom has
had an impact on the representation and evolution of the genre, and also on the
bloggers' lives. My paper presents the results of this survey and uses them as a base
for discussing how chick-lit fandom oscillates between affective economics and
postfeminist activism. I am using Henry Jenkins' term to describe how the publishing
industries are interpellating chick-lit readers to become fans, and how they try to
bind them emotionally to the novels and authors. By postfeminist activism, I mean a
kind of activism which does not take feminism as its driving force but still achieves
'classic' feminist aims, such as the empowerment and promotion of women in fields
where they have been under- or misrepresented, and the documentation of a
herstory which has been ignored by the mainstream media.
Rosana Vivar Navas (University of Granada)
Genre Film Fandom and Festivity in Spain: Notes on San Sebastian Horror and
Fantasy Film Festival, 2012-2013
Since its opening in 1989 the San Sebastian Horror and Fantasy Film Festival (SSHFFF)
has been a focal point for locals with a passion for cult movies, b movies, horror,
science fiction, and exploitation movies. While the SITGES International Fantastic
Film Festival of Catalonia is a world reference for highly specialised horror and sci-fi
fans, SSHFFF has built its identity upon a more modest principle, serving as an
alternative to SITGES for fans seeking a more intimate, laid-back event. Taking place
in late October, the festival is well known among regulars and locals for its impudent
iconoclastic audience, whose heckling of guests has become a highlight of the event.
Organisers encourage participation through fanzine meetings, concerts or on-line
contests, while hard-core fans spontaneously convert the main festival venue into a
bacchanal where the shouting out of witticisms during the screenings is de rigueur.
At the same time, the theatre serves as a platform to communicate with and
influence the organisers. My intention is to analyse the implication of festivity in the
shaping of a genre film community that despite its uncouth members, its taste for
marginal film and its niche-like condition maintains a privileged position within San
Sebastian’s annual cultural programme. Drawing on the work of the historian Johan
Huizinga (1954) and sociologist Roger Caillois (1967), I will examine how the
presence of different forms of play in SSHFFF such as parody, ritual, fan works, and
their relationship with the place, have contributed to this subculture growing
stronger in Spain. Ultimately, I will consider whether this “playful conduct” can be
studied at the festival site within the framework of participatory cultures (Jenkins,
1992, 2006). In doing this I will employ the concept of Participatory Culture often
discussed within digital fandom debates and expand it to event-based fandom.
Andrea Nevitt (Keele University)
The Expectations and Evaluations of Game of Thrones Fans before and after the
televised “Red Wedding”
One of Game of Thrones’ most-anticipated scenes aired in June 2013. That scene
was the ‘Red Wedding’, in which three major characters died.
It is no surprise that the prevalent topics of conversation among those who were
fans of the novels before the adaptation are comparisons between the wedding of
the novels and the wedding of the show, and the evaluation of the quality of the
latter in light of the differences between the two. This sits uncomfortably alongside
a shift in adaptation theory away from linear, comparative textual analyses of
monolithic texts, and evaluations based on fidelity, towards post-structural theories
of transmedial texts and intertextual reading practices. It is necessary to question
what is at stake in the analysis of adapted texts if academic approaches overlook
insights that can be gained via research into the reading practices of fans of those
texts
In this paper I will begin by demonstrating that the discourse of fans prior to the
screening of the Red Wedding was in line with adaptation theory’s shift in focus; fans
drew interpretations of the chapter, and expectations of the episode, from several
sources. Then will follow analysis of fans’ descriptions of the imagery of the written
and on-screen weddings, using Lacan’s orders of the real, the imaginary and the
symbolic as a starting point. I will argue that, through comparative analysis, fans
evaluate the quality of the televised scene in terms of its ability to replicate
emotions inspired by the book. This return to judgements of fidelity is suggestive of
at least two interconnected situational interpretive practices; one for expectation,
and one for evaluation.
The paper will highlight that a shift in the focus of adaptation theory must not
overlook insights that can be gained through the application of fan studies
approaches.
Anne Peirson-Smith (City University of Hong Kong)
Living Dolls: an examination of the affective motivations and creative agency of
ball-jointed doll fans
This paper will examine the motivations underlying the adoption and use of balljointed dolls (BJD) such as Volks Super Dollfies by fans as a new type of collective
intelligence, a form of creative play and as evidence of a participatory fan culture.
Fans of animation, manga and cosplay pursue a DIY culture of self-display within the
boundaries of commodity culture. These fans as textual performers identify with the
commodification of Japanese culture and modern cosmopolitan branding as an
escape from the boundaries of their own culture, also revealing a deep transcultural
longing to inhabit the characters and costumes of this commodity culture. The
”other” here provides a safe and viable refuge and a way of defining an affinity with
a like-minded community in the process of re-affirmation. However, tensions remain
between doll fandom in terms of commodification versus commercialization and the
agency status of both doll fans and doll producers.
The paper will present findings from ethnographic interviews, focus groups and
observational analysis conducted with a selection of BJ doll fans and producers in
Hong Kong, Japan and China in both private spaces and public or commercial places
or at organized themed events. Findings will suggest that this tendency to articulate
identity, belonging, difference, gender and sexuality through the purchase of specific
brands can be found in the material possession and customization of ball-jointed
dolls Doll fans, including cosplayers, avidly collect, modify and dress up ball-jointed
dolls as mini-versions of themselves in the form of a creative performance. Their
acquisition and public display amongst affinity groups appears to fill an affective void
and operates as a panacea to the pressures of urban life, albeit with localised
cultural nuances. These dolls seem to become best friends, sisters, brothers,
children, confidantes and counselors for collectors who appear to seek gratification
and unconditional love in a mute humanoid form. Doll fans also seem to acquire
agency through their active consumption, performative participation and creative
modification of their dolls.
William Proctor (Sunderland University)
Time’s Arrow: Continuity, Canon and Fanon
For fans of vast story-systems such as DC Comics or its bête noire, Marvel, continuity
is one of the principle pleasures of engagement. Indeed, many fans patrol the
narrative continuum as ‘continuity cops’ who hunt for cracks and fissures in the
ontological realm of chronology and causality. In the 1960s, Marvel Comics famously
offered a ‘No-Prize’ to readers who detected continuity violations and concocted
inventive ways to correct the error and ‘make the pieces fit’ and repair the paradox.
As Dittmer argues, ‘much as nature abhors a vacuum, comic book fans abhor holes in
continuity.’
Continuity is also a concern for many readers of serial story-systems outside of the
comic book medium including Sherlock Holmes novels, the Star Wars hyperdiegesis,
the Oz franchise, Doctor Who, and soap operas such as Dallas and Coronation Street.
This paper explores the activities of fans that negotiate inconsistency and
contradiction in order to play with the text and mould the spatiotemporal dynamics
into a cohesive order – even when the pieces resist chronological mapping.
The activities of so-called Sherlockians, for instance, play with the Arthur-Conan
novels and compose a logical system with which to reinterpret the narrative as
conducive with an Aristotelian system of causality. As Wolf (2012: 45) argues,
What is interesting is the degree to which fan communities want to see
inconsistencies resolved; although they would seem to threaten the believability of a
world more than the lack of completeness or invention, inconsistencies are treated
by those fans as though they are merely gaps in the data, unexplained phenomena
that further research and speculation will clear up. (Wolf, 2012: 45).
Thus, active readers play with the text as a ‘silly putty’ that bends and shapes
contradictory elements to suit their desire for a diegetic logic that adheres to a serial
system of cause-and-effect, thus, creating a personal canon, or fanon. Despite the
turn to poststructuralism which sweeps linearity from the temporal table, this paper
argues that fan activity often expresses a requirement for linearity and structure
even if they have to do the narrative mechanics themselves.
Natasha Whiteman (University of Leicester)
Fans, Obsolescence and In/Security: ‘The Return’ of the Commodore Amiga
In 2012, twenty years after the release of the Amiga 4000, a new ‘Amiga’ computer –
the Amiga ‘Mini’ - was released to market. The launch was not successful, and
provoked heated online criticism from fans and enthusiasts, many of whom denied
the legitimacy of this product to bear the Amiga name.
The launch of the Amiga Mini had the potential to pose a destabilising threat to the
fan communities that continue to surround this classic brand. As it was, the product
and its producers were quarantined and othered by fans, and a sense of security was
maintained. Through an analysis of online forum activity and blog posts, this paper
examines how fans evaluated the authenticity of the Amiga Mini, articulated
nostalgic affiliation to the original brand, and conceptualised the ‘essence’ of the
Commodore Amiga (recruiting values which justified the persistence of their
affiliation to the Amiga ‘experience’ and against which the newly launched product
was judged).
In exploring fan responses to the Amiga Mini, this paper also seeks to pose broader
questions about fan relationships to obsolescent technologies and texts, the selfsufficiency of fan communities, and issues of in/security in the maintenance of fan
affiliation to objects that have apparently come to an ‘end.’ Theoretically, the paper
will draw from studies of what Williams (2011) has termed ‘post-object fandom,’
literature on the revival and “aura” of brands (Brown, Kozinets and Sherry Jr, 2003),
and studies of technological obsolescence and the ways that “temperamental or
naturally life-limited systems” (Newman, 2012, 14) are kept alive by computer and
videogames communities.
Markus Wohlfeil (University of East Anglia)
Catching Fire? New Insights into the Nature of Fans’ Parasocial ‘Romantic’
Relationships with a Celebrity
While consumers have always been fascinated by the works and private lives of
celebrities, some consumers experience a significantly more intensive level of
admiration for a particular celebrity and, subsequently, become what are commonly
known as fans (Leets et al. 1995). However, scant attention has been paid to how the
relationship between fans and celebrities expresses itself in everyday consumer
behavior. Moreover, while the vast majority of fan studies have theorised fan culture
from various critical perspectives (Fiske 1992; Hills 2002; Sandvoos 2005; Turner
2004) and/or investigated the social networks and dynamics between fans through
ethnographic field research (Jenkins 1992; Kozinets 2001; O’Guinn 1991), even less is
known about how and to what extent the fan-celebrity relationship occupies both a
physical and mental space in the individual’s everyday life. This paper, therefore,
explores celebrity fandom as a holistic lived experience from a fan’s insider point of
view (Smith et al. 2007). By using an introspective research approach, I provide
insights into my own personal everyday lived fan relationship with the actress Jena
Malone (Wohlfeil and Whelan 2012). In drawing on narrative transportation theory,
the study offers a deeper understanding of how and why a fan’s continuous personal
engagement with both the celebrity’s creative work as a performer and the ‘actual’
private person behind the public image can take the form of a parasocial fancelebrity relationship. What the fan perceives to be the ‘actual’ private person
behind the celebrity’s public image is essentially his/her own intertextual reading of
what s/he believes to be relevant and “reliable” media texts, which are
subconsciously charged with one’s personal desires and projected back onto the
admired celebrity. Subsequently, the fan can actually experience the feeling of
“knowing” the celebrity like a close personal friend – or even develop romantic
feelings of “love” for a person that s/he has actually never met.
SPEED GEEKING SESSIONS
Nancy Bruseker (University of Liverpool)
One Direction and Teenage Fandom
I am very interested in exploring the many negative stories about the teenage
fandom around One Direction, particularly spurred on by the escalation to the
recent Channel 4 programme about their ‘extreme fandom.’ There is a lot of noise
around the concept of ‘entitlement’, and how many fan practices are excessive and
show too much of this. In fan literature there’s a lot of discussion about economics,
and the way fandom is both driven by the capitalist models of consumption and also
subverts/lives beyond it. (Fiske, Busse and Hellekson, Jenkins, Sandvoss, etc) All of
this is usefully applied to the current situation with One Direction fans, and should
be done. However, there’s something more to get at in this discussion, around the
way that teenagers are being taught how to interact in the world by participating
(with their parents’ money) in the economy and society. The media’s production of
the the hysterical female fan base is fuelled by the immense spending power of
these fans, while simultaneously curtailing their activity by shaming them. How does
this serve the economics of pop music, and what is the cost to the individual
members of the One Direction audience? What lessons are teenaged girls learning
about gender & the economic value of women?
Alice Chauvel (Independent)
Fans of Fan Practice
For my Master’s dissertation, I interviewed a small sample of Twilight fans about
their involvement in fan charities. Two observations stood out, however I was unable
to explore them at the time. First, the fans spoke of the Twilight fandom as ‘the’
fandom, unconsciously implying that there were no other fandoms. And second,
rather paradoxically, a number of my interviewees distinctly identified themselves as
part of the ‘Twific fandom’ (i.e. Twilight fanfiction fandom), implicitly acknowledging
the existence of various fan communities within the wider Twilight fandom.
Based on this, I’d like to further explore the idea that fans can be fans of a particular
practice as well as of a particular fandom. For example, there is the well-loved
instance of the fanfiction writing, convention attending, cosplaying Star Trek fan.
However, there are also slash fans, who will read slash fanfiction across fandoms including fanfiction derived from a media object they are wholly unfamiliar with
simply because it is slash. I would like to compare these two approaches to fandom
with the aim of untangling the traditional concept of the fan who is usually defined
in terms of his/her affective relationship to a media product or sport, rather than a
practice.
Ruth Deller (Sheffield Hallam)
Of Simblrs and Simstagram: Sim-ifying Social Media
Fans of the Sims games series are active across the internet, expressing their fandom
through a range of blogging platforms, forums and social networking sites (Bury et al
2013). In this paper I look at how Sims fans - who are mostly female (see Gee and
Hayes 2010) - use Tumblr and Instagram (often via cross-posting between these
platforms) as expressions of their fandom. Many fans identify their profiles or
uploads as ‘Simblrs’ or ‘Simstagrams’ as a way of creating a sense of clearly
identified fan ‘space’ within these platforms (see Baym 2000, Bury 2005).
Through a combination of virtual ethnography, surveys and interviews, I explore how
these fans adopt both wider ‘trends’ popular on Instagram and Tumblr (e.g. ‘selfie
Sunday’; reaction gifs (see Thomas 2013)) using Sims imagery; how they integrate
Sim fandom with other fandoms (e.g. ‘SuperWhoLock’; Glee; Harry Potter) and how
they use these platforms to recreate more traditional forms of fan activity (e.g.
fiction writing, content sharing, discussion) that were previously the domain of
forums, blogs or larger websites sites in a new, more visual form.
Simone Driessen (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Aging Minds and popular music
This study aims to explore the relationship between aging minds and popular music.
Current studies - in cultural sociology and cultural studies - have focuses on how
music serves as a nostalgic element for baby-boomers (Bennett, 2006; 2013), or
explored how ‘post-youth’ deal with ageing bodies, grown-up responsibilities and
tasks in relation to their involvement in a (subcultural)scene (Hodkinson & Bennett,
2012).
Yet, these studies focus mainly on issues of ageing, instead of ageing minds (Bielby
& Harrington, 2010). To explore how people give meaning to music as ‘post-youth’, I
wish to explore how Millenial-generation fans produce meanings of the (current)
revival (or survival in some cases) of music they grew up with (e.g. re-uniting boyand girl-bands from the late ‘90s). While Hills (2002; 2005) acknowledges that
various fandoms can become (ir)relevant to one’s cultural identity at specific times;
this leaves unaddressed the important question of how fans currently give meaning
to their fan-being. So I’m interested in discussing:
a) this revival/survival phenomenon
b) how it influences one’s ‘fan life course’
c) how fans legitimize their fan-being now
d) how this influences their fan practices
Emma England (University of Amsterdam)
The Separation of Fan Histories
This will look at specifically how fan-histories are built as separate constructs with
very little acknowledgement of other fan histories despite similar and overlapping
paths. By exploring shared fan histories we could go some way to understanding fans
and fan cultures differently as well as, perhaps, enable fans to build closer bonds
between seemingly disparate groups.
Claire Evans (Independent)
Fan practices and identity in motorsport
Following a discourse analytical project on the media representation of live Formula
One motor racing, I am currently thinking about how I could extend this research
and explore the relationship between fan practices and identity in motorsport1. One
of the key questions I hope to address is whether (fan) practices in motorsport
constitute consumption of a corporate brand or a celebrity one. Due to a desire to
increase my specialist knowledge with fan studies research I would like to use the
session as an opportunity to discuss: 1) Prior literature/research in the broad sense
of whether the idea falls under the remit of fan studies (or celebrity studies). 2)
Viable methods for the analysis (and possible additional collection) of data. I am
particularly interested in the implications of research design on our understanding of
the relationship between fan practices and identity.
Craig Hamilton (Birmingham City University)
The Harkive Project
On 9th July 2013 The Harkive Project gathered stories from thousands of music fans
across the globe about how, why and where they listened to music. The aim of the
project was to capture for posterity a global snapshot of the ways in which we
interact with the sounds and technology of today. The project will return again in
2014, and every year thereafter. Harkive project manager, Craig Hamilton, an MA
Music Industries student and visiting lecturer at Birmingham City University, is
holding a speed geeking session in order to discuss the project, seek feedback on the
manner in which the 2013 instance was designed and executed, and to explore
possible research applications for the data set he collected.
Nele Noppe (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium)
How thinking of monetized fanworks as "open source cultural goods" can help fans
and rights holders
Fanworks have been exchanged largely in gift economies in most parts of the world
up to now. For various reasons, pressure is increasing to commodify fanworks and
let them play a role in the commercial economy as well. However, various
stakeholders are finding that it's very hard in practice to make fanworks function as
economic goods in this new "hybrid" economy.
In this presentation, I explore the possibilities inherent in treating fanworks as “open
source” cultural goods. The economy surrounding open source software production
is a very successful existing example of a hybrid economy in which products created
in a gift economy are also monetized in a more market-oriented economy. Scholars
from a remarkable variety of fields have already linked the production systems of
derivative cultural goods like fanworks to open source-based practices. Although the
influence of open source “philosophy” has now spread far beyond the area of
software creation, cultural goods still remain a conspicuous blank in the long list of
various “open” movements, not in the least because legal concerns make the
creation of an “open source cultural good” difficult.
I argue that fanwork may be an ideal candidate for the title of “open source cultural
good”. Open source and fannish production practices not identical, regardless of
their similarities. However, because of their shared origins and characteristics, the
vocabulary, problems, and solutions from one can help us articulate similar problems
and possible solutions in the area of the other. I will examine how open source
practices could be adapted to create legal, economic, and social conditions in which
fanworks can be integrated into the broader cultural economy. I also argue that this
way of monetizing fanworks would be beneficial economically and socially, both for
fanwork creators and for the companies whose media products fanworks are based
on.
Mafalda Stasi and Adrienne Evans (Coventry University)
Methods in their Madness: New Directions in Fan Studies Research
In the last 30 years, fan studies has produced groundbreaking and outstanding
research. However, methodological discussion has been mostly absent-which might
arguably limit the scope of future research. It is time now to raise questions such as:
what kinds of knowledge do we want to produce? What are the objects being
studied? Who is a fan studies researcher?
In a recent paper (now under review) we argued that the absence of methodology in
fan studies reflects some of the issues of defining methodology in media and cultural
studies. We propose that further groundbreaking work could be produced by
drawing on new interpretative methodologies, especially when applied to the areas
of the 'aca-fan' subject position, and on new modes of online fan activism.
In this speedgeeking session, we want to further open up the discussion of
method/ology in fan studies. In doing so, we want to pose the following questions:
What is your object of fan studies (e.g. fan, fandom, fan text)? What methods do you
use to study this object? And how can these methods work together to further
advance the field?
Name
Affiliation
Email
Boushra Batlouni
American University of Beirut
boushrabatlouni@gmail.com
Lucy Bennett
Independent
bennettlucyk@gmail.com
Oliver Brooks
UEA
oliver.brooks@uea.ac.uk
Barbara Brownie
University of Hertfordshire
b.k.1.brownie@herts.ac.uk
Nancy Bruseker
University of Liverpool
bruseker@liverpool.ac.uk
Alice Chauvel
Independent
alicechauvel@hotmail.com
Bertha Chin
Independent
bertha.chin@gmail.com
Beccy Collings
UEA
rebecca.collings@uea.ac.uk
Helena Louise Dare-Edwards
UEA
helena.de3@gmail.com
Joost de Bruin
Victoria University of Wellington
joost.debruin@vuw.ac.nz
Kali DeDominicis
University of Edinburgh
s0678246@sms.ed.ac.uk
Priscilla Del Cima
University of Exeter
pmdm201@exeter.ac.uk
Ruth Deller
Sheffield Hallam University
r.a.deller@shu.ac.uk
Lise Dilling-Hansen
Aarhus University, Denmar
ldh@hum.au.dk
Simone Driessen
Erasmus University Rotterdam
driessen@eshcc.eur.nl
Carrie Dunn
Manchester Met University
carrie.dunn@mmu.ac.uk
Hannah Ellison
UEA
han.ellison@gmail.com
Emma England
University of Amsterdam
e.e.england@uva.nl
Claire Evans
Independent
claireae@yahoo.co.uk
Adrienne Evans
Coventry University
adrienne.evans@coventry.ac.uk
Ruth Foulis
University of Glasgow
ruth_lily@hotmail.co.uk
Lincoln Geraghty
University of Portsmouth
Lincoln.Geraghty@port.ac.uk
Danny Graydon
University of Hertfordshire
d.graydon@btinternet.com
Oliver Gruner
University of Portsmouth
olly_gruner@hotmail.com
Thomas Hale
University of Roehampton
halet@roehampton.ac.uk
Craig Hamilton
Birmingham City University
craig.hamilton@bcu.ac.uk
Briony Hannell
UEA
b.hannell@uea.ac.uk
Gemma Hawkins
University of Bedfordshire
pagemonkey@gmail.com
Richenda Herzig
UEA
r.herzig@uea.ac.uk
Amber Hutchins
Kennesaw State University
ahutch13@kennesaw.edu
Ekky Imanjaya
UEA
E.Imanjaya@uea.ac.uk
Bethan Jones
Aberystwyth University
bethanvjones@hotmail.com
Bridget Kies
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
bkies@uwm.edu
Anne Kustritz
University of Amsterdam
A.M.Kustritz@uva.nl
Nicolle Lamerichs
Maastricht University
n.lamerchs@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Lies Lanckman
University of Kent
lies.lanckman@gmail.com
Giorgia Marchetta
Cardiff Metropolitan University
giorgiamarchetta@gmail.com
Richard McCulloch
Regent's University, UK
richardjmcculloch@gmail.com
John McManus
University of Oxford
john.mcmanus@gtc.ox.ac.uk
Heike Missler
Saarland University
h.missler@mx.uni-saarland.de
Rosana Vivar Navas
University of Granada
rvivar@ugr.es
Andrea Nevitt
Keele University
a.c.nevitt@keele.ac.uk
Nele Noppe
University of Leuven
nele.noppe@gmail.com
Anne Peirson-Smith
City University of Hong Kong
enanneps@cityu.edu.hk
Tom Phillips
UEA
T.Phillips@uea.ac.uk
Denzell Richards
UEA
denzell.richards@uea.ac.uk
Marit Rokeberg
University of Roehampton
elimarit@yahoo.com
Jason Scott
Leeds Trinity University
j.scott@leedstrinity.ac.uk
Mikhail Skoptsov
Brown University
neosmith@gmail.com
Mafalda Stasi
Coventry University
mafalda.stasi@coventry.ac.uk
David Sweeney
Glasgow School of Art
d.sweeney@gsa.ac.uk
Charlotte Taylor-Ashfield
Bath Spa University
charlottetaylorashfield@gmail.com
George Thain
UEA
ncfcthain@gmail.com
Veerle Van Steenhuyse
Ghent University
Veerle.VanSteenhuyse@UGent.be
Ed Vollans
UEA
e.vollans@uea.ac.uk
Natasha Whiteman
University of Leicester
new9@le.ac.uk
Eva Wijman
University of Nijmegen
e.wijman@igs.ru.nl
Markus Wohlfeil
UEA
m.wohlfeil@uea.ac.uk
Hannah Yelin
UEA
h.yelin@uea.ac.uk
FAN STUDIES NETWORK SYMPOSIUM 2013
TPSC FOYER
09:00 – 09:30
Keynote
Break
10:45 – 12:00
12:00 – 13:00
Panel A: Spaces and Performance
Panel B: Celebrity
Panel C: Gender
Panel D: Classic Fandoms, New
Narratives
Lunch
13:00 – 14:30
14:30 – 14:45
Break
14:45 – 16:00
16:00 – 16:15
Speed Geeking
Break
16:15 – 17:45
Panel E: Transculture
17:45 – 18:00
Close
18:00 – 19:00
TPSC 0.1
Registration
09:30 – 10:30
10:30 – 10:45
TPSC LECTURE THEATRE
Wine Reception
Panel F: Textualities