- http://www.nicollelamerichs.com
Nicolle Lamerichs
Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, Creative Business, Faculty Member
- Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Communication & Journalism, Department Memberadd
- Fandom, Online Fandom, Digital Media, Digital Humanities, Costume and Identity, Ethnography, and 22 moreIntermediality, transmediality, Gender, Media and Culture Studies, Popular Culture, Audience and Reception Studies, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Authorship, Fan Cultures, Fan Studies, Virtual Ethnography, Transmedial Storytelling, Virtual Environments, Video Games, Manga and Anime Studies, Media Studies, Cosplay, Game studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), Costumes, Intermediality, Media and Cultural Studies, and Subculturesedit
- While I upload certain files and PDF's on this platform, I do not maintain my full bibliography here. For all my open... moreWhile I upload certain files and PDF's on this platform, I do not maintain my full bibliography here. For all my open-access works, publications and books, please go to: http://nicollelamerichs.comedit
- Karin Wenzedit
Download the full open-access version of my book Productive Fandom in the link (at the Oapen portal, funded by NWO). To dismantle negative stereotypes of fans, this book offers a media ethnography of the digital culture, conventions, and... more
Download the full open-access version of my book Productive Fandom in the link (at the Oapen portal, funded by NWO).
To dismantle negative stereotypes of fans, this book offers a media ethnography of the digital culture, conventions, and urban spaces associated with fandoms, arguing that fandom is an area of productive, creative, and subversive value. By examining the fandoms of Sherlock, Glee, Firefly, and other popular television-based franchises, the author appeals to fans and scholars alike in her empirically grounded methodology and insightful analysis of production hierarchies, gender, sexuality, play, and affect.
To dismantle negative stereotypes of fans, this book offers a media ethnography of the digital culture, conventions, and urban spaces associated with fandoms, arguing that fandom is an area of productive, creative, and subversive value. By examining the fandoms of Sherlock, Glee, Firefly, and other popular television-based franchises, the author appeals to fans and scholars alike in her empirically grounded methodology and insightful analysis of production hierarchies, gender, sexuality, play, and affect.
Research Interests: Game studies, Media Studies, Humanities, Digital Humanities, Television Studies, and 15 moreEthnography, Intermediality, Online Communities, Manga and Anime Studies, Intertextuality, Transmedial Storytelling, Fandom, Narrative Analysis, Digital Ethnography, Affect (Cultural Theory), Role-playing Game Theory, Sherlock Holmes, Costumes, Cosplay, and Fandom Studies
This open-access volume brings together a variety of critical perspectives in the emerging field of fan studies. Fan Communities and Fandom. We have engaged with multiple disciplines and theorists in order to explore the various methods... more
This open-access volume brings together a variety of critical perspectives in the emerging field of fan studies. Fan Communities and Fandom. We have engaged with multiple disciplines and theorists in order to explore the various methods of fan production and research. Whether fans engage in the real-world, online, or define themselves by their lack of engagement, the ability of fans to participate and share their enthusiasms with one another is one of the most striking and intriguing features of the fandom phenomena. Fan communities have directed their remarkable fervour towards charitable causes, bringing television shows and book characters back from the dead, and honing their creative skills before persuing fandom-worthy material of their own. We explore fandom as a social space and constructed identity, fuelled by talented creators and enthusiastic consumers, and building on the global connectedness born from the digital age.
Originally published at Inter-Disciplinary.net, this volume contains essays from different fan scholars on topics such as celebrity fandom, pop-culture tourism, cosplay, fan activism, and YouTube fandom.
Originally published at Inter-Disciplinary.net, this volume contains essays from different fan scholars on topics such as celebrity fandom, pop-culture tourism, cosplay, fan activism, and YouTube fandom.
Research Interests:
At the end of the twentieth century, RE/Search published three volumes dedicated to the “Incredibly Strange.” Looking a cinema and music, these were forays into the unconventional and unpopular, the avant-garde and in-bad-taste, outsider... more
At the end of the twentieth century, RE/Search published three volumes dedicated to the “Incredibly Strange.” Looking a cinema and music, these were forays into the unconventional and unpopular, the avant-garde and in-bad-taste, outsider and oppositional cultural artefacts. This project produced an archeology of marginal media with decidedly countercultural sentiment which has been influential in intellectual attempts to comprehend weird in culture; from Washburn & Demo’s (2013) “Bad Music” anthology and Hoberman and Rosenbaum (2009) adventures in “Midnight Movie” culture to Jeffrey Sconce’s (1995) conception of the “paracinema” community. Chris Charla has recently revived the strange, this time looking specifically at games with a series of zines (a punky format of which RE/Search would most certainly approve) called Incredibly Strange Games. Here the tone is softer and more celebratory, lovingly exhibiting the unusual and unplayed.
Inspired by the ethos of the “incredibly strange” and a personal penchant for shovelware, shitty games (kusoge), the Simple Series by 505 and neo-situationist numbers like the LaLaLand games, this “Seriously Weird Edition” seeks to take weird seriously. A venture in five parts, this collection brings together a variety of strange tales of videogames demonstrating that the weird can be wonderful and, of course, well played.
Inspired by the ethos of the “incredibly strange” and a personal penchant for shovelware, shitty games (kusoge), the Simple Series by 505 and neo-situationist numbers like the LaLaLand games, this “Seriously Weird Edition” seeks to take weird seriously. A venture in five parts, this collection brings together a variety of strange tales of videogames demonstrating that the weird can be wonderful and, of course, well played.
Research Interests: Video Games and The Weird
Though popular imagery often captures fans as lonely or odd, they are enthusiastic consumers, sharing ideas, creative work and critical reflection on a global scale. Within this anthology, we seek to understand the term ‘fandom’ as a... more
Though popular imagery often captures fans as lonely or odd, they are enthusiastic consumers, sharing ideas, creative work and critical reflection on a global scale. Within this anthology, we seek to understand the term ‘fandom’ as a state of being as well as a state of doing, and reflect on the different enthusiasms and interests which bring people together all over the world.
Research Interests:
This article explores the subculture of cosplay, short for ‘costume play’. In this particular practice, fans create and wear costumes that allow them to re-enact existing fictional characters from popular culture. These outfits and... more
This article explores the subculture of cosplay, short for ‘costume play’. In this particular practice, fans create and wear costumes that allow them to re-enact existing fictional characters from popular culture. These outfits and subsequent performances are a physical manifestation of their immersion into the fictional realms of television, games and movies, among others. Cosplay can be understood as the culture of costuming that occurs beyond the institutional remit of the theatre. Especially in western countries, cosplay is intimately connected to the carnivalesque space of the fan convention, where fans gather and re-enact their favourite characters. I argue that embodiment plays a unique role in cosplay that should be interrogated closely. The fan performer relies on multiple bodies and repertoires that are intimately connected to the fan’s identity and the performed character.
Research Interests:
Japanese popular culture unifies fans from different countries and backgrounds. Its rich participatory culture is beyond any other and flourishes around comics (manga), animation (anime), games and music. Japanese storytelling showcases... more
Japanese popular culture unifies fans from different countries and backgrounds. Its rich participatory culture is beyond any other and flourishes around comics (manga), animation (anime), games and music. Japanese storytelling showcases elaborate story worlds whose characters are branded on many products. The sub genres of Japanese pop-culture and the lingua franca of their audiences shape Western fandom. In this article, I scrutinize the global dynamic of manga. I specifically focus on the creation of fan manga (‘doujinshi’) and dress-up (‘cosplay’) as two migratory fan practices. The form and content of fan works, and the organizational structure behind them, varies intensely per country. If manga is an international language and style, where is its international fan identity located? In this article, I explore this uncharted territory through ethnographic views of diverse Western and Japanese fan sites where these creative practices emerge. This ethnographic overview is thus concerned with the heterogeneous make-up and social protocols of anime fandom.
Keywords: Anime fandom, doujinshi, cosplay, conventions, ethnography
Keywords: Anime fandom, doujinshi, cosplay, conventions, ethnography
Research Interests:
Through cosplay (costume play), fans perform existing fictional characters in self-created costumes, thereby enriching and extending popular narratives. Cosplay is an understudied form of appropriation that transforms and actualizes an... more
Through cosplay (costume play), fans perform existing fictional characters in self-created costumes, thereby enriching and extending popular narratives. Cosplay is an understudied 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. Although the costume can be experienced firsthand at convention sites, it is also remediated in photography, thereby extending its potential audience and performative possibilities. In the rich emerging genre of cosplay music videos, commonly shot and produced at convention sites, fans juxtapose different cosplayers and texts. Informed by work on other fan videos, such as machinima, I propose a reading of a selected corpus of videos to analyze the dynamics of costume culture as it transcends the convention grounds.
Research Interests: Fan Studies, Mashups, Fan Cultures, Fandom, Youtube, and 4 moreCostumes, Cosplay, Remix, and Modern Music and Videos
In this article, I construct a post-play reading of the dating-sim Hatoful Boyfriend (MIST[PSI]PRESS, 2011) - a cult favourite among fans of Japanese popular culture and beyond. At first mistaken as a bad game, fans were surprised to... more
In this article, I construct a post-play reading of the dating-sim Hatoful Boyfriend (MIST[PSI]PRESS, 2011) - a cult favourite among fans of Japanese popular culture and beyond. At first mistaken as a bad game, fans were surprised to find something unique. The game is deceptively weird. While its surface, particularly the concept and visuals, seem to create its strangeness and ambiguity, the actual weird resides in its deconstruction of the dating-sim genre. In this close-reading, I analyze the unusual storytelling, structure and mechanics of this bizarre parody game and explore the tropes and conventions of Japanese popular culture which are subverted to determine this a strange dating-sim.
Research Interests:
Academic accounts of fan cultures usually focus on creative practices such as fan fiction, fan videos, and fan art. Through these practices, fans, as an active audience, closely interpret existing texts and rework them with texts of their... more
Academic accounts of fan cultures usually focus on creative practices such as fan fiction, fan videos, and fan art. Through these practices, fans, as an active audience, closely interpret existing texts and rework them with texts of their own. A practice scarcely examined is cosplay ("costume play"), in which fans produce their own costumes inspired by fictional characters. Cosplay is a form of appropriation that transforms and actualizes an existing story in close connection to the fan community and the fan's own identity. I provide analytical insights into this fan practice, focusing on how it influences the subject. Cosplay is understood as a performative activity and analyzed through Judith Butler's concept of performativity. I specifically focus on boundaries between the body and dress, and on those between reality and fiction. I aim to show that cosplay emphasizes the personal enactment of a narrative, thereby offering new perspectives on fan identity.
Research Interests:
The plot of the Dutch novel Maak me blij (Make me happy) (2005) by Karin Giphart draws from the culture of online fan communities. It describes the life of a lesbian in her late 20s, Ziggy, who has a terminally ill mother. Ziggy is an... more
The plot of the Dutch novel Maak me blij (Make me happy) (2005) by Karin Giphart draws from the culture of online fan communities. It describes the life of a lesbian in her late 20s, Ziggy, who has a terminally ill mother. Ziggy is an active fan who writes and reads femmeslash fan fiction—that is, lesbian interpretations of characters from mainstream series such as Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001). By providing through Ziggy a personal view of fan communities and the genres that flourish there, Maak me blij connects the romantic motives of original lesbian fiction with its underground sister, fan fiction. The novel draws from various source texts and illustrates how fans interpret texts within a wider literary landscape. I use the concept of intermediality to analyze how Maak me blij mediates different types of original fiction (lesbian romances, science fiction) and fan fiction (femmeslash, Star Trek fan fiction) to establish new views on fandom and its construction of gender and intimacy. These motives are not only apparent within the text itself but also within the character of Ziggy as a fan writer with her own original alien characters.
Research Interests:
This volume brings together a variety of critical perspectives in the rapidly growing field of fan studies. We have engaged with multiple disciplines and theorists in order to explore the various methods of fan production and research.... more
This volume brings together a variety of critical perspectives in the rapidly growing field of fan studies. We have engaged with multiple disciplines and theorists in order to explore the various methods of fan production and research. Whether fans engage in the real-world, online, or define themselves by their lack of engagement, the ability of fans to participate and share their enthusiasms with one another is one of the most striking and intriguing features of the fandom phenomena. Fan communities have directed their remarkable fervour towards charitable causes, bringing television shows and book characters back from the dead, and honing their creative skills before pursuing fandom-worthy material of their own. We explore fandom as a social space and constructed identity, fuelled by talented creators and enthusiastic consumers, and building on the global connectedness born from the digital age.
Research Interests:
This paper explores how European artists integrate the aesthetics of Japanese manga in their work. These local comic artists bridge artistic traditions by embedding narrative and visual tropes of Japan in their creations. Analytically,... more
This paper explores how European artists integrate the aesthetics of Japanese manga in their work. These local comic artists bridge artistic traditions by embedding narrative and visual tropes of Japan in their creations. Analytically, this emergence of European manga or “Euromanga” tells us much of the circulation of Japanese popular culture and its fan culture. I use the concepts “transculturalism” and “transmediality” to account for these complex cultural dynamics between various local traditions.
Methodologically, this paper provides a close-reading of various Euromanga and the local contexts in which they emerge. My approach is a medium-specific one (Hayles, 2004), that reads these comics in terms of their visual and narrative style, with close attention to elements such as paneling and their semiotic implications (McCloud, 1994). I also examine the production contexts of these Euromanga. Such comics often emerge in fandom as small independent projects, but can also be initiated by, or professionalized into, mainstream publishing houses.
Particularly, I shall focus on two cases that, each in their own way, mediate manga. First, I explore the manga publication Oost West (2009), in which multiple Dutch artists interpret Japanese culture and aesthetics. The project involved local doujinshi artist but also mainstream comic artists who created graphic novels that convey cultural themes and narratives of Japan. Second, the appropriation of “yaoi” and “yuri” doujinshi in Germany is subject to attention. By close-reading the anthology Lemon Law (2007-), I chart how German artists interpret the queer genres of manga culture and in what ways their culture stands out.
Ultimately, I show that the language of manga is used by local artists as a means of narrative or stylistic innovation, and as a form of cultural critique.
Methodologically, this paper provides a close-reading of various Euromanga and the local contexts in which they emerge. My approach is a medium-specific one (Hayles, 2004), that reads these comics in terms of their visual and narrative style, with close attention to elements such as paneling and their semiotic implications (McCloud, 1994). I also examine the production contexts of these Euromanga. Such comics often emerge in fandom as small independent projects, but can also be initiated by, or professionalized into, mainstream publishing houses.
Particularly, I shall focus on two cases that, each in their own way, mediate manga. First, I explore the manga publication Oost West (2009), in which multiple Dutch artists interpret Japanese culture and aesthetics. The project involved local doujinshi artist but also mainstream comic artists who created graphic novels that convey cultural themes and narratives of Japan. Second, the appropriation of “yaoi” and “yuri” doujinshi in Germany is subject to attention. By close-reading the anthology Lemon Law (2007-), I chart how German artists interpret the queer genres of manga culture and in what ways their culture stands out.
Ultimately, I show that the language of manga is used by local artists as a means of narrative or stylistic innovation, and as a form of cultural critique.
Research Interests:
This contribution to Game Love: Essays on Play and Affection (Enevold, MacCallum-Stewart, 2015) seeks to understand cosplay as a creative expression of love for games. I have added a link to googlebooks, but feel free to e-mail me for a... more
This contribution to Game Love: Essays on Play and Affection (Enevold, MacCallum-Stewart, 2015) seeks to understand cosplay as a creative expression of love for games. I have added a link to googlebooks, but feel free to e-mail me for a draft at n.a.lamerichs@gmail.com
Research Interests:
In this chapter I focus on the intermediality of Glee fan fiction and discuss how this genre constructs new representations of gender and sexuality. After explaining the concept of intermediality, I detail my methodology and analyse three... more
In this chapter I focus on the intermediality of Glee fan fiction and discuss how this genre constructs new representations of gender and sexuality. After explaining the concept of intermediality, I detail my methodology and analyse three stories written by fans. Then I will conclude with some final remarks about the critical potential of fan fiction and geek feminism.
Research Interests:
Decades ago fans were usually adults who had the economic and social liberty of going to conventions or clubs (Jenkins, 1992). Recently, the discourse on fandom has become entwined with that on new media audiences, who are not only... more
Decades ago fans were usually adults who had the economic and social liberty of going to conventions or clubs (Jenkins, 1992). Recently, the discourse on fandom has become entwined with that on new media audiences, who are not only portrayed as younger, but also seen as exemplary of fandom even though their online activity is more generic. This bias downplays the importance of traditional spaces in which fans still meet up, often independent of or in relation to these online platforms. I discuss fan conventions of Japanese popular culture as a site of research. The history and culture of fan conventions is only touched upon briefly in fan studies even though these sites are flourishing at the moment (Bacon-Smith, 1992, 3–43; Jenkins, 1992; Taylor, 2006, 1–11). The San Diego Comic Con, for example, drew up to 130.000 visitors in 2011.
Methodologically, I rely on ethnographical data (2010-2011) obtained at various fan conventions as well as earlier auto-ethnographical experiences. I reflect upon the status of the fan-scholar as an insider and the specific challenges and affordances that this position enables. This study seeks to unearth the meanings of the convention ground for fans. Comparable to findings of fan tourism research, conventions take place in spaces (e.g. hotels) that are actualized in relation to fiction (e.g., Cartmell, 1993; Reijnders, 2009, 2011). Fictional characters and plot lines are re-enacted through practices such as cosplay, in which fans dress up as existing characters, but also through video screenings, events and socializing.
The convention is also analyzed as an affective space where textual affinity binds like-minded individuals (e.g., Grossberg, 1992; Hills, 2001). Though it has been understood as an extraordinary, ritual space (Couldry, 2003), a convention is in fact a dynamic, social constellation, entwined with other physical spaces and online spaces. Nonetheless, fans’ travel to the convention is often seen as going to the heart of fandom. It is the place where fans belong, a home. At conventions that target homosexual fan genres, for example, this clearly resonates with the possibility of a queer space, that opposes societal constraints.
Methodologically, I rely on ethnographical data (2010-2011) obtained at various fan conventions as well as earlier auto-ethnographical experiences. I reflect upon the status of the fan-scholar as an insider and the specific challenges and affordances that this position enables. This study seeks to unearth the meanings of the convention ground for fans. Comparable to findings of fan tourism research, conventions take place in spaces (e.g. hotels) that are actualized in relation to fiction (e.g., Cartmell, 1993; Reijnders, 2009, 2011). Fictional characters and plot lines are re-enacted through practices such as cosplay, in which fans dress up as existing characters, but also through video screenings, events and socializing.
The convention is also analyzed as an affective space where textual affinity binds like-minded individuals (e.g., Grossberg, 1992; Hills, 2001). Though it has been understood as an extraordinary, ritual space (Couldry, 2003), a convention is in fact a dynamic, social constellation, entwined with other physical spaces and online spaces. Nonetheless, fans’ travel to the convention is often seen as going to the heart of fandom. It is the place where fans belong, a home. At conventions that target homosexual fan genres, for example, this clearly resonates with the possibility of a queer space, that opposes societal constraints.
Research Interests:
Discussing the interpretations of Dutch fans of Sherlock, I seek to understand how viewers make sense of the series in relation to other texts and what kind of literary competence they display in their reception. The study is based on... more
Discussing the interpretations of Dutch fans of Sherlock, I seek to understand how viewers make sense of the series in relation to other texts and what kind of literary competence they display in their reception. The study is based on seven in-depth interviews with Dutch fans of the series. Through this data, I explore how a local audience makes sense of the transmedial elements in the series. I elaborate upon the interviewees’ understanding of the modern aspects of Sherlock, its characters and its Englishness. Contemporary texts increasingly make use of transmediality to develop their narratives across various media platforms. This is often hailed as a strategy which companies use to construct a more active reader base that is prone to discuss its scattered fictional content. I add to this by showing how readers understand the narrative by “naturalizing’ it through other texts and genres they are familiar with, aiming to shed light on individual ways of reading in an increasingly complex media landscape. Rather than explicitly relating the series to additional texts and instalments related to Sherlock, I argue that viewers explore the text through their implicit understanding of related genres, local and global popular texts, as well as their own experiences of what constitutes plausible character behaviour.
Research Interests:
"Through “cosplay” (costume play) fans perform existing fictional characters in self-created costumes, thereby enriching and extending popular narratives. Cosplay is a scarcely studied form of appropriation that transforms and actualizes... more
"Through “cosplay” (costume play) fans perform existing fictional characters in self-created costumes, thereby enriching and extending popular narratives. 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). While dress up can involve actual costumes or fantasy play, it is also encouraged in digital games and their user-generated content. Customizable characters and “dollhouse” structures in The Sims series are but one example (Wirman, 2011). Similarly, cosplay provides the player with the joys of make-belief and productive play.
This paper explores the possibilities of reading the costume itself as a product that facilitates performance and play. I analyze cosplay as a transmedial activity that is constructed 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 emerging performances.
The first case details the materiality of cosplay through its consumption culture. Cosplay blurs the relations between labor and play. The activity takes shape at fan conventions but also increasingly at promotional events of the industry itself. Costumes are commodified by fans themselves as well that sell their cosplay photos, commission their dress from others or buy parts of them. Increasingly, costumes and accessories are sold over platforms as eBay and Etsy which will illustrate the dynamics between commerciality and creativity.
The second case explores the visuality of the costume through its mediation. While the costume can be experienced first-hand at convention sites, it is also remediated in photography, for instance, thereby extending its potential audience and performative possibilities. I exemplify this transmediality through cosplayer music videos (CMV) that are commonly produced at convention sites. These rich videos are created by and for fans and juxtapose different cosplayers and texts. Informed by work on other fan videos such as “machinima” (Lowood & Nitsche, 2011) I propose a reading of a selected corpus of videos. Thus, this study analyzes the dynamics of costume culture as it transcends the convention grounds."
This paper explores the possibilities of reading the costume itself as a product that facilitates performance and play. I analyze cosplay as a transmedial activity that is constructed 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 emerging performances.
The first case details the materiality of cosplay through its consumption culture. Cosplay blurs the relations between labor and play. The activity takes shape at fan conventions but also increasingly at promotional events of the industry itself. Costumes are commodified by fans themselves as well that sell their cosplay photos, commission their dress from others or buy parts of them. Increasingly, costumes and accessories are sold over platforms as eBay and Etsy which will illustrate the dynamics between commerciality and creativity.
The second case explores the visuality of the costume through its mediation. While the costume can be experienced first-hand at convention sites, it is also remediated in photography, for instance, thereby extending its potential audience and performative possibilities. I exemplify this transmediality through cosplayer music videos (CMV) that are commonly produced at convention sites. These rich videos are created by and for fans and juxtapose different cosplayers and texts. Informed by work on other fan videos such as “machinima” (Lowood & Nitsche, 2011) I propose a reading of a selected corpus of videos. Thus, this study analyzes the dynamics of costume culture as it transcends the convention grounds."
Research Interests:
Fans of games and media have generally been analysed as social communities that invest in particular fiction. This investment is often understood as grounded in social contexts rather than based on feelings or love. I present my... more
Fans of games and media have generally been analysed as social communities that invest in particular fiction. This investment is often understood as grounded in social contexts rather than based on feelings or love. I present my findings on cosplay (costume playing) in which fans dress up as their favourite fictional characters. I phrase this as an embodied and affective process, inspired by philosophical theories and by Matt Hill’s work on fandom as an affective space. The affects that are generated through cosplay are multiple. First, the performance can be understood as an embodiment of a fan’s affective relation to a text. Second, the player also chooses a certain character to represent that matters to him/her. Third, the costume affects the player, not only when wearing it, but also when preparing it in advance and cherishing it after it is worn. Creating the right circumstances for wearing the costume and being that character is central here as part of the aesthetic experience, comparable to Gomart and Henion’s research on music fans. Through dress up, fans create material objects that qualify the intense experience of the narrative. Affect will be analysed here as a form of meaning making and contextualizing. This will be related to its actualized emotions such as love, but also nostalgia or frustration.
Research Interests:
In this paper I aim to explore the genre of independent (“indie”) games through a fan studies framework. The history and development of digital games is intimately connected to enthusiast and fan practices. Indie games are small-scaled... more
In this paper I aim to explore the genre of independent (“indie”) games through a fan studies framework. The history and development of digital games is intimately connected to enthusiast and fan practices. Indie games are small-scaled productions made by young professionals, fans or small studios. These media are increasingly becoming mainstream, as evidenced by their distribution through service platforms, such as Steam or Playstation Network. Though indie games are increasingly part of the game industry, they also act against it. Today, independent game have become almost synonymous with quality games, cult and avant garde, pointing towards the maturization of games as a medium. The rise of independent games echoes the development of other media, ranging from film to music (Martin & Deuze, 2009; Westecott, 2013).
I capture this genre through a case-study of The Stanley Parable (2013). This first-person game tells the story of “Stanley”, an office worker, who one day awakens to find his office empty. The game was originally a modification or “mod” built in the Source Engine of Valve. After its initial success in 2011, the game was developed further and released on Steam. The Stanley Parable became an instant indie classic, as evident by its nominations for prices and its praise by critics. The Stanley Parable can be read as a fan creation – a derivative work that both affirms and transforms tropes of digital games. The game, for instance, relies heavily on gaming capital (Consalvo, 2007). Its references include levels from other games such as Portal and Minecraft. I pay specific attention to the narration of the game, which is self-conscious and ironic. An external narrator voices the actions of ‘Stanley’, and criticizes the player that does not comply to his story. By criticizing interaction and storytelling, The Stanley Parable is exemplary of the counterculture of independent games that emerge partly in compliance with the game industry and partly as a response against it.
I capture this genre through a case-study of The Stanley Parable (2013). This first-person game tells the story of “Stanley”, an office worker, who one day awakens to find his office empty. The game was originally a modification or “mod” built in the Source Engine of Valve. After its initial success in 2011, the game was developed further and released on Steam. The Stanley Parable became an instant indie classic, as evident by its nominations for prices and its praise by critics. The Stanley Parable can be read as a fan creation – a derivative work that both affirms and transforms tropes of digital games. The game, for instance, relies heavily on gaming capital (Consalvo, 2007). Its references include levels from other games such as Portal and Minecraft. I pay specific attention to the narration of the game, which is self-conscious and ironic. An external narrator voices the actions of ‘Stanley’, and criticizes the player that does not comply to his story. By criticizing interaction and storytelling, The Stanley Parable is exemplary of the counterculture of independent games that emerge partly in compliance with the game industry and partly as a response against it.
Research Interests:
In this paper I would like to discuss my ongoing ethnography that details anime fan conventions in Europe and overseas. The increase in online fan practices since the nineties has resulted in many studies on fandom as an online activity.... more
In this paper I would like to discuss my ongoing ethnography that details anime fan conventions in Europe and overseas. The increase in online fan practices since the nineties has resulted in many studies on fandom as an online activity. This downplays the importance of traditional spaces and events (e.g., club meetings, fairs, expos). I discuss fan conventions of Japanese popular culture as a site of research. Like their online counterparts, fan conventions have increasingly drawn large numbers of fans. Comiket in Japan, for instance, draws half a million visitors every year.
Now that more European ‘conventioneers’ cross the border to go to different fan events, it is important to also look at the local differences between conventions. I cross-compare different fan events that I have visited the past years. I also pay attention to doujinshi (self-published comics) and cosplay (fannish dress-up as fictional characters). Other than analyzing how the practices differ in form and content, I make the shared lingua franca visible amongst non-English speaking fans and show how this is expressed in their fan practices. Even though the language and tradition of European countries differ, they find common ground in the shared capital of fandom itself. This is also shaped by the global internet culture that builds bridges among these European countries.
Methodologically, most events that I attended were located in Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium. This selection allowed me to compare fan events in neighbouring countries. These analyses are enriched by ethnography that I performed at larger events overseas, such as Otakon in the US and Comiket in Japan. Overall, I do not want to give a utopic view of European fandom which is still largely a heterogeneous phenomenon. Differences of culture and language, and practicalities such as travelling or financials, still hinder fans to attend events outside of their country. Whether there is a European fandom at all is debatable, but a rise in European cosplay events shows that in some fields a community is in the making.
Now that more European ‘conventioneers’ cross the border to go to different fan events, it is important to also look at the local differences between conventions. I cross-compare different fan events that I have visited the past years. I also pay attention to doujinshi (self-published comics) and cosplay (fannish dress-up as fictional characters). Other than analyzing how the practices differ in form and content, I make the shared lingua franca visible amongst non-English speaking fans and show how this is expressed in their fan practices. Even though the language and tradition of European countries differ, they find common ground in the shared capital of fandom itself. This is also shaped by the global internet culture that builds bridges among these European countries.
Methodologically, most events that I attended were located in Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium. This selection allowed me to compare fan events in neighbouring countries. These analyses are enriched by ethnography that I performed at larger events overseas, such as Otakon in the US and Comiket in Japan. Overall, I do not want to give a utopic view of European fandom which is still largely a heterogeneous phenomenon. Differences of culture and language, and practicalities such as travelling or financials, still hinder fans to attend events outside of their country. Whether there is a European fandom at all is debatable, but a rise in European cosplay events shows that in some fields a community is in the making.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This is a Dutch article published in Boekenkrant (June 2015, page 12-15) about manga as a medium, and how manga influenced Dutch comics.
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The game industry is rapidly growing and developing. While game communities used to be studied in relation to role-playing games and vast virtual worlds, this no longer suffices. Game cultures are rapidly changing with the growth of... more
The game industry is rapidly growing and developing. While game communities used to be studied in relation to role-playing games and vast virtual worlds, this no longer suffices. Game cultures are rapidly changing with the growth of independent games, the variety of online games, and the diversification of the platforms that they are played on. The communities constructed around digital games are becoming more diverse in terms of demography and play styles. While previous studies have focused on virtual worlds and role-playing games, today's online games are more diverse, including social games such as FarmVille (Zynga, 2009) or console titles such as Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games, 2010). Communities can be formed within these games, but players also connect outside of the game. They express their engagement on forums such as Reddit or broadcast their in-game actions on YouTube. Esther MacCallum-Stewart's Online Games, Social Narratives (2014) is a timely intervention that traces how player communities are constructed by players and by the game industry, and how participation is motivated in these media. The work is positioned at the nexus of fan studies and game studies, offering rich insights in the lived culture of video game players.
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he hybrid and global designs of contemporary media pose a daunting challenge for researchers. In recent discourses within fan studies, these elements come to the fore most clearly in the analysis of EXTENSIVE franchises as well as in the... more
he hybrid and global designs of contemporary media pose a daunting challenge for researchers. In recent discourses within fan studies, these elements come to the fore most clearly in the analysis of EXTENSIVE franchises as well as in the tensions between local and global spaces of reception. In the context of manga, subcultural practices of fandom and industry-driven transmediality can be witnessed most clearly. Manga broadly refers to comics from Japan and their aesthetic qualities. The verb manga is also commonly used to connote the transmedia EXTENSIONS of these stories in games and animation. The reception and distribution of manga outside of Japan is unique in that fans often distribute, translate, and appropriate these manga products themselves. Manga's Cultural Crossroads (2013), edited by Jaqueline Berndt and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer, is a timely and insightful publication that addresses this global reception of Japanese popular culture.