Thread by @elmyra

Just about to get into Cardiff for #FSN2018. Woo! Conference live-tweeting thread starts here. Conference programme is here: fanstudies.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/fsn-20…

#FSN2018 Keynote 1 about to start. Mark Duffet kicking us off with "Things That Go Punk in the Night"

"What does it mean socially, politically to express one's individual identity in public?"

Example of Kolya Vasin - Russian Beatles fan who was arrested several times in the Soviet Union for running Beatles parties. (Though it may be overreaching to claim the Beatles brought down communism. ;) )

Fandom is political (though that is less visible at home than with Beatles fans in the Soviet Union) - when we declare our passion for something we align ourselves with the values it expresses

We can't reduce all fan identity to performance but performativity can be interesting and useful. Performing authenticity and excess.

(And I've been forgetting the hashtag. #FSN2018)

Duffett draws out links between fandom and a case study of the Enfield haunting (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enfield_P…) - fandom as demonic possession #FSN2018

Popular music fandom (especially young girls' fandom) seems as irrational as a haunting. #FSN2018

1960s and 70s youth expressing political demands (among other things through culture and music) becomes associated with the sociology of deviance.

Popular music associated with this through punk. #FSN2018

"The music wasn't important. It was just a declaration of intent and attitude." #FSN2018

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#FSN2018

Some more on the media construction of punk as deviant. #FSN2018

By performing the haunting on national television, the Enfield girls drew on fears of punk, shocking middle classes. #FSN2018

"Poltergeists are quite common and tend to attach themselves to girls around the age of puberty." Duffett quips that the same can be said of rock stars. #FSN2018

Duffett suggests that Enfield case draws on fears about both pop fandom and punk. #FSN2018

Question from audience: To what extent can we detach the artist from their work in our fandom, in relation to artists "behaving badly"? #FSN2018

Answer: Yes but there are limits - depends on both what the behaviour is and what the values the fans are attaching themselves to are.

Question from audience around potential parallels between punk and hip hop. (I'd been trying to formulate a similar one for 20 mins so thanks to whoever asked it!) Would have loved to have more time to see this addressed properly. #FSN2018

Following the dinosaurs to panel #a3 on fandom, technology and platforms at #FSN2018.

First up in #a3: @aleenachia on Hybridity/Binarism in Participatory Concepts. #FSN2018

Hybridity concepts: prosumption (sociology), playbour (games studies), convergence (media studies) - created as critique of traditional divisions (play/labour, audience/producers, passive/active). #FSN2018 #A3

These concepts are performative. They say "we know what's going on here." They have also calcified, and perhaps lost their edge. Neoliberalism thrives on this kind of hybridity. #FSN2018 #A3

Hobbies like gaming now intertwined with professional aspirations as cosplayers, GMs, games devs, etc. #FSN2018 #a3

"Do what you love, don't think about the money." Venture labour, aspirational labour - undertaken part-time by fans hoping to break into the industry. #FSN2018 #a3

Chia is showing us photos of business cards she has collected from fans at conventions - expectations of professionalism in amateur communities. #FSN2018 #a3

"If flexibility is the promise then ambiguity is the trap of platform capitalism." @aleenachia

E.g. Uber etc exploiting ambiguities of employee status - then ambiguities begin to calcify. #FSN2018 #a3

Scholars talk about hybrid concepts like prosumption like they're an inevitable stage of capitalism. For people who are actually living this, these concepts are highly contested. #FSN2018 #a3

Hybridism can't escape from its legacies of binarism. While we're debating these concepts, we're missing the impact they have on people's day-to-day lives. Academic performativity of these concepts has contributed to their normalisation. #FSN2018 #a3

We need to challenge and call-out the contested nature of these concepts, and look at policy implications. #FSN2018 #a3

Next up in #FSN2018 #a3 Welmoed Wagenaar “This is Something I Must Enjoy”: Making sense of Tumblr Multifandom Practices in Everyday Contexts

What are the physical everyday contexts from which people engage with online fandom? #FSN2018 #a3

Wagenaar conducted ethnographic study of Tumblr users and how they use the platform and integrate it into their day-to-day lives. #FSN2018 #a3

Users frequently experienced Tumblr in negative ways: a distraction, stupid, silly. #FSN2018 #a3

This depended on the everyday context from which they were using the platform. #FSN2018 #a3

Context 1: time - Tumblr during leisure time enriching, Tumblr during work time distraction. #FSN2018 #a3

Context 2: place and social context - e.g. public v private. #FSN2018 #a3

Context 3: device - using it on phone perceived more as a distraction. #FSN2018 #a3

Users felt pressure to enjoy Tumblr so they took steps to make sure they were experiencing Tumblr in contexts where that was true - setting rules for themselves. #FSN2018 #a3

Using concept of framing to make sense of this: framing helps us contextualise things and changes the meaning of what we're doing. We can key in and out of frames, navigate different realities depending on social context. #FSN2018 #a3

Fans/Tumblr users create their own frames to manage their usage of the platform. #FSN2018 #a3

Next up in #FSN2018 #a3 Jessica Crosby: Moving Pictures: Tumblr Users and GIF Use in Online Film Reception

Gifs as bridging the paradigmatic gap between film and TV on the one hand and social media on the other. #FSN2018 #a3

Audiences can engage with content across different media. On social media we can see exactly how film audiences interact with film. #FSN2018 #a3

Gifs have evolved over the years, reaction gifs as embodied communication and self-expression. #FSN2018 #a3

Gifs on Tumblr used in particular ways in relation to film: reaction (now common across other platforms) and enactor of spectacle. #FSN2018 #a3

Spectacle: gifs are very similar to early cinema. Engage audience by preserving the liveness of the motion picture. Online audience can sample a few moments of the film. #FSN2018 #a3

Gifs tend to emphasise visually striking or impactful scenes. Action or affective response. #FSN2018 #a3

Recent trends in "3D" gifs that reach out to the audience. #FSN2018 #a3

Gifs are an extension of the film experience rewired and reformated for the Tumblr audience. Users are drafted into production and become editors, critics and co-authors of the spectacle. #FSN2018 #a3

Next up in #FSN2018 #a3 Meredith Dabek “Lizzie’s Story Felt Like Home:” Narrative Intimacy in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries Fandom

Lizzie Bennet Diaries (LBD) actively invited audiences to interact and become part of the story. Helped suspension of disbelief and narrative intimacy. #FSN2018 #a3

Narrative intimacy: narrator inviting reader to share spaces, experiences. Present-tense, first-person narration, but also what is shared - feelings, insights into decision making etc.. #FSN2018 #a3

LBD developed narrative intimacy through body language and facial expressions, and choice of filming locations such as bedrooms (private spaces). Audience has ability to pause/rewind/playback to re-experience or examine emotions. #FSN2018 #a3

LBD also generates narrative intimacy through deliberate disclosure of personal information - feelings, insecurities, etc. - on behalf of the characters. Implies characters are taking a risk by doing so. #FSN2018 #a3

Framing sharing as a gesture of trust in the audience makes characters feel more like real people. #FSN2018 #a3

Narrative intimacy also developed through audience interactions. Vlogs are an ongoing dialogue between vlogger and audience (even if vlogger is fictional character). #FSN2018 #a3

Interacting with vloggers opens up audience to vulnerability, e.g. of having your experiences used in future episodes. #FSN2018 #a3

"Layered" and "generous" "feedback loop" as characters responded to audience interactivity. #FSN2018 #a3

Characters interacted differently: Lizzie engaged and replied, Lydia rejected them. #FSN2018 #a3

Fans felt they were background characters in the lives of the main characters. #FSN2018 #a3

Immersive and interactive experiences like LBD change out expectations of stories but also offer the possibility to rediscover and re-engage with classical works of literature like Austen's novels. #FSN2018 #a3

Ooo, we've hit gif vs jif in the audience questions! :P

Audience discussion is currently on "Tumblr is a hellscape". ;)

Alright, I'm taking a break from live-tweeting, partly for lunch and partly because I'm speaking in the panel after lunch (on fan studies methodologies).

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More fan studies live-tweeting after lunch and my own talk. :)

Well the methodologies panel was awesome even if I do say so myself. I'll try to RT other people's coverage of it later.

Now in #FSN2018 #C3: Fan Activism and Social Engagement.

First up in #FSN2018 #C3: Tom Phillips: “Piledrive a Fascist”: Fan Performance, Activism, and Textual Boundaries

Phillips is looking at women's wrestling. Historically women in wrestling have been sexualised, but with a new popularisation of feminism, this has impacted how women's wrestling can be presented. #FSN2018 #C3:

Here's the showreel for Pro-Wrestling EVE: #FSN2018 #C3

Promotion of EVE goes beyond wrestling and the ring and has overtly political content.

Here's one of their t-shirt designs. imgur.com/r/squaredcircl…

#FSN2018 #C3

EVE markets itself as a safe space and will remove audience members for hate speech and violating the safe space policy.

Aesthetic of the space helps inform audience that there is an active feminist discourse behind the wrestling. (E.g. knitted banners) #FSN2018 #C3

Narrative and storytelling important in wrestling (esp. in women's wrestling). Some performers positioned as villains - audience is expected to boo, performers interact with them and become part of the performance. #FSN2018 #C3

Eve erodes boundaries between performance and non-performance - after show performers will interact with fans "out of character". #FSN2018 #C3

Current socio-cultural contexts help to reappropriate the field of women's wrestling, mark it as feminist rather than for the male gaze - feminists and traditional wrestling fans are in dialogue and help educate one another. #FSN2018 #C3

Next up at #FNS2018 #C3 Leandro Augusto Borges Lima (@leandroablima): Videogames and Fan-activism: Why are Gamers Not There Yet?

(something we all want to know)

Fan activism can explain abstract ideas (inequality, discrimination, etc.) and create activist commitment. #FNS2018 #C3

What are the conditions for fan activism to happen? Critical mass in the fandom, shared affections and experiences, knowledge of DIY tools and practices to remix content/create material, political themes in fan object, spaces for deliberation. #FNS2018 #C3

Both Harry Potter and Mass Effect have (most of) these things. We have Harry Potter Alliance, but not the Mass Effect Alliance. Why? #FNS2018 #C3

Lima shows three cases where Mass Effect has generated some activism. fem!Shep marketing, M/M romance, and the ME3 ending controversy. #FNS2018 #C3

Bioware piggybacked on the fem!Shep campaign hashtag when they did release the official fem!Shep look. #FNS2018 #C3

All of these campaigns are specifically related to representation in the game and in-game content, not wider issues. #FNS2018 #C3

The ME3 ending campaign did actually tie into real-world issues through fundraising for a charity - but this was done largely for media attention in order to make Bioware pay attention. #FNS2018 #C3

The community dispersed after that campaign and Bioware's response. #FNS2018 #C3

So these three campaigns could possibly have been the seed for a wider political activism, but they weren't. #FNS2018 #C3

Possible reasons: stigma around video games (social isolation and addiction), which is also not helped by toxic masculinity that dominates gaming culture. #FSN2018 #C3

Another poss reason: limited access to games compared to other media (they're expensive, and there's a skills gap); also difficulty in perceiving videogames as more than entertainment. #FSN2018 #C3

And disconnect between the stereotyped demographic (cishet white dudes) and political discussion in progressive politics. #FSN2018 #C3

The best example of fan activism to date is actually g*merg*te. And that's terrible. #FSN2018 #C3

Next up in #FSN2018 #C3: Emily E. Roach - This Paper is Problematic: The Impact of Changing Platforms on Fandom Content

(And this time I might even get the hashtags right.)

Roach looking at intra-fandom antis (as opposed to the other use of antifandom). E.g. people who are anti a ship/character/practice within a fandom while still being fans of the originary work and participating in fandom. #FSN2018 #C3

Two case studies: "Your fave is problematic" antis and "antis vs tinhats". #FSN2018 #C3

Harry Potter is a fragmented fandom partly because it's so old and has moved across so many platforms. LJ and clones, Tumblr, etc. #FSN2018 #C3

Snape has never been uncontroversial in HP fandom, but there are parts of Tumblr who are seeking to police content production about Snape on moral or emotional grounds. #FSN2018 #C3

Antis - reach the conclusion that Snape is a morally bad character and refuse to engage beyond that point. Little nuance in their engagement. #FSN2018 #C3

Tinhats and antis in the context of Larry Stylinson shipping. #FSN2018 #C3

Tinhatting is not new but it's becoming more public due to social media engagement with celebrities. #FSN2018 #C3

Harry Potter ship wars as "zero-sum shipping" and predecessor to tinhatting. As fandom has moved to Tumblr it has become harder to avoid interacting with these conversations. #FSN2018 #C3 (I have methodological questions here.)

Language of fandom policing has changed: threat used to be perceived as external to fandom ("if we keep doing this rightsholders will shut us down"), now it's "I don't like it so you shouldn't make it". #FSN2018 #C3

Antifandom accompanied by increasingly conservative views in fandom, increased focus on marriage and domesticity in fic, etc. #FSN2018 #C3

#FSN2018 #c3

Right, I'm going to wrap up today's live-tweeting. I'll probably go back and RT a bunch of stuff from panels I wasn't at in a bit. And of course there's a whole second day of #FSN2018 tomorrow!

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