Transformative Works and Cultures - TWC (Organization for Transformative Works)
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852 research outputs found
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Critical pedagogy and visual culture art education in a cosplay-based curriculum
No full textAlthough cosplay may be defined simply as the act of dressing up as a popular culture character, this definition fails to convey the criticality, identity exploration, and craft involved. Critical pedagogy and visual culture art education can together form the bases of a cosplay curriculum designed to promote critical thinking about interaction with popular culture and fandom, to explore the construction of identity, and to use cosplay as a form of artistic practice
Sneakerheads as fans and sneaker fandom as participatory culture
No full textThis paper considers sneakerheads, or sneaker collectors and enthusiasts, as fans. It explores both them and their participatory culture, developing a new approach to researching sneakerheads: I here conceptualize sneaker collecting as an object-inspired fandom to highlight the difference between sneaker fandom and other object-oriented fandoms. This paper demonstrates that sneaker collecting is about both collecting knowledge about the subject of sneakers and collecting sneakers themselves. The materiality of sneakers, the story behind a design, and the cultural history of sneakers attracts sneakerheads to sneakers. As such, I here explore the following characteristics of sneaker collecting: the importance of knowledge and its acquisition, the high value of the community's practices and activities, the high level of emotional involvement, fan art (sneaker art), and anticommercial ideologies and beliefs. The approach demonstrated in this paper could also be useful in research of other communities organized around collecting wearable goods, such as clothes or accessories, including football T-shirts, vintage denim, and bags
The reviewer's role in Brazilian K-drama fan subs
No full textAn analysis of the process of proofreading in communities of Brazilian fans subtitling South Korean dramas
Teaching fan fiction: Affect and analysis
No full textWe reflect on the design and first iteration of an asynchronous online university English course focused on fan fiction, with a particular focus on the anticipated challenges of negotiating affect and analysis in the classroom and the structure of the course
Volunteerism in fandom
No full textAn examination of the topics of labors of love, the gift economy, and the digi-gratis economy related to volunteerism within fandom platforms highlights issues related to monetary compensation, enjoyment of labor, and relationships between fan labor and the job market
Context, cosplay, and (re)configurations: Centering the geek at the heart of science fiction pedagogy
No full textThe course "Science Fiction: Humanity, Technology, the Present, the Future" uses fandom as a motivator for pedagogical development, promoting participation and engagement by encouraging students to embrace their fan passions. In classroom discussions, website commentary, Geek of the Week presentations, and a final prototype project where science fiction texts are reimagined as nonlinear user-driven experiences, students are given a role in shaping the content and trajectory of the course. Two perspectives are provided, one from a professor and one from a former student, on the course, its syllabus and assignments, and the ways in which the students' participation in fandom helps influence the hierarchies, balance, and flow of the course. By exploring new approaches to course development and more democratic classroom experiences through concepts such as affinity spaces, participatory culture, and design thinking, the course proposes a fan pedagogy that best contextualizes science fiction as a genre, field, and space for cultural commentary
"Exploiting fandom: How the media industry seeks to manipulate fans," by Mel Stanfill
No full textReview of Mel Stanfill, Exploiting fandom: How the media industry seeks to manipulate fans. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2019, paperback, $75 (262p), ISBN 978-1609386238
Text mining, Hermione Granger, and fan fiction: What's in a name?
No full textWhen fans rewrite characters, how do they engage that character's identity and the social constructions around it? Fan fiction writers resist, replicate, and create oppressive social systems by changing characters between published and fan texts. As such, fan studies scholars have long been interested in how fans construct characters, an interest that has often been paired with readings of race, gender, and sexuality. Digital humanities can help confirm and nuance extant fan studies scholarship around specific characters popular in fan fiction. We used Word2Vec software to mine the text of 450 pieces of fan fiction based on J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. By focusing on the depiction of Hermione Granger in both Rowling's novels and Harry Potter fan fiction, we tested how text mining character names can reveal properties closely tied to a specific character through the relationships between the target name and other characters. Analysis via Word2Vec found that "Hermione" is used grammatically and contextually differently in the books (in which she is most like Harry and Ron) than in our fan fiction corpus (in which she is most like other girls/women). This difference suggests that these fans have a specific reading of Hermione that is communally understood even if Rowling's diction offers a different reading
Harley Quinn and the carnivalesque transformation of comic book fandom
No full textThe antihero Harley Quinn was first introduced as the Joker's "henchwench" in Batman: The Animated Series (1992). The character soon developed a dedicated fan base, including enthusiasts who did not conform to traditional definitions of comic book fans. Recognizing Harley Quinn's popularity, DC Comics subsequently incorporated the character into comic book continuity. Today, Harley Quinn is a transmedia icon extended across multiple media platforms. In this article, audience research and creator interviews were performed to show how Harley Quinn has been used by both fans and industry stakeholders to transform long-standing (and often outdated) definitions of comic book fandom. Much of Harley Quinn's transformative potential comes from invoking a carnivalesque tradition that defies boundaries. Harley Quinn's popularity is not simply symptomatic of a widening comic book fandom but was active in that transformation