2016 fan studies conference paper on three stages of fandom
TRANSCRIPT
@LizaPottsDirector of WIDE Research Center and Associate Professor
Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures
The Sign of Three in Fandoms:Fan Memory of Sherlock/Holmes Fans in London
Participatory Memory
Participatory Memory =
Participatory Culture +
Collective Memory
Investigating physical and digital
public spaces of memory,
celebration, and reflection
created
by / for fans
Participatory Memory Projects
Learning from fandoms in spaces they inhabit
Understanding the Experience of Fans in these Spaces
Examining the Three Stages of Fan Activity
How / Where We Do Our Research
Exploring Spaces of Fan Participatory Memory
Studying At/With Through Fan Cons
Learning Through Study Abroad
2016 Study Abroad Focused on Cultures and Storytelling (fandom)
2013-16 College of Arts & Letters Undergraduate Research Initiative
2014 Research Study Abroad to London / Paris
Kelly Turner, Emily Dallaire, Katie Grimes, Lizzie Oderkirk, Shell Little
Student Researchers Are A Key Part of WIDE’s Work
Ah, but Sherlock…Holmes?
Three Stages of Fandom as observed in
Participatory Memory sites
Speaking to Producers
Acknowledging Each Other
Making Fiction, Art, Artifacts, Orgs
Fan Site Visits from 2003-2016
Participatory Memory: Stage 1
Fans Speaking to Producers
“Public commemoration is a form of history-making, yet, it can
also be a contested form of remembrance in which cultural
memories slide through and into each other, merging and then
disengaging in a narrative triangle”
- Marita Sturken in “The Wall, the Screen, and the Image: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial” from the Visual Cultural Reader, Ed. Mirzoeff, Routledge 1998.
Stage 1: Fans Speaking to Producers
Participatory Memory: Stage 2
Fans Acknowledging Each Other
“Memory – relating past and present – is thus the central faculty of
being in time, through which we define individual and collective
selves”
- Jeffrey K. Olic, Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi, and Daniel Levy in “Introduction” from
the Collective Memory Reader, Oxford 2011.
Stage 2: Fans Acknowledging Each Other
Stage 2: Fans Acknowledging Each Other
Participatory Memory: Stage 3
Fans Making Fiction, Art, Artifacts, Organizations
“It is only through narrative that we know ourselves as active
entities that operate through time”
- H. Porter Abbott in The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative 2002.
Stage 3: Fans Making, Organizing
Stage 3: Fans Making, Organizing
Thank you!
Liza PottsAssociate Professor and Director of WIDE Research Center
Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures
Michigan State University, Michigan, [email protected] @LizaPotts
Scholarship: Digital Projects
Undergraduate Researchers (and grads!):
Emily Dallaire, Kelly Turner, Katie Grimes
Significance
Egg
Toast
Plate Field(s) of Study
Phenomenon / Example
Big, Generalizable Idea
Experience Architecture,
Internet Studies, Fan Studies
What happens when participatory culture
and collective memory collide across
physical and digital spaces
Doctor Who/Torchwood,
Sherlock, Harry Potter, Princess Di
Michigan
State
University's
WIDE
Research
Center
Our Projects:
Participatory and Visible
Intentionally Inclusive
Oriented Towards Social Justice
in our Research, Methods, and
Making