#FSNNA22 Live Blog: Fandom During/After Covid
Next session: Fandom During/After COVID
“Reaching Fans Through Deeper Interaction: The Case of Concerts Through Games and Interactive Spaces”
4 cases of concerts in games and interactive spaces: Fortnite is mostly a business approach.
Case 2: Adventure Quest 3D: Fan connection through gameplay
Porter Robinson: Secret Spy more about connecting fans through virtual spaces, chat, avatars, VR
Case 4: Concerts organized by Wave. Real-time motion capture. Trying to create interaction between artist and fans.
Key takeaways: new ways for fans to connect, artists found new ways to interact. "What is the impact of the fan persona?"
Talking about how stage musicals in China are thriving while Broadway is not - uses the closing of Phantom of the Opera on Broadway as an example.
First key to success is the introduction of the immersive theater genre. Special environments and audience participation.
Immersive theater's smaller audience size is good during pandemic
2nd key: Embracing idol fandom. Free drawing for idol performer cards. Exploiting fan labor for marketing.
Fan-made souvenirs, fan photography.
Key #3: Let's queer the theatres. All-male cast, cross-dressing, queer-baiting. These all appeal to female gaze. ([@KimberlyHirsh](https://micro.blog/KimberlyHirsh): How is Takarazuka doing? Could be a cool transnational study.)
"the pleasure obtained from face-to-face interaction is irreplaceable"
All previous Eva Liu tweets are from @EvaLiu1996
“Podficcing in the Pandemic” Key terms: Accessibility, Identity, Experience, Creating, Consuming, Socializing
Podfic is fanfiction recorded aloud and shared as audiopods online. Some people never thought of it as accessible while other people, esp with print disability, used it. ([@KimberlyHirsh](https://micro.blog/KimberlyHirsh): like fanfiction audiobooks)
Some fans used time they would otherwise have gone out to socialize to record podfic. Others experienced trauma and/or just felt pandemic didn't give them more time to create.
Listening to human voices made people feel less alone, but people who lost their commute or had more other people at home listened to less podfic.
Podfic community was an important social activity for some participants.
“‘Are We Friends or Opponents?’ Fans’ Relationship Changes from Online To Offline” with Yuhang Zheng
In idol fans pre-COVID there was a hierarchy where offline fans were considered "core fans" and online fans were more peripheral, but as idols moved activities online during COVID-19, this dynamic changed.
More affordable to attend signings, don't have to navigate physical distance
Change of fan space made it more equitable, less hierarchical. Will the old patterns resurface? How do these patterns work in fandoms surrounding fictional works/characters?
with Dina Rasolofoarison: “Where Is roundtables Fandom Acted Out in 2022? An Update on Places of Fan Practices”
inclusive definition of fandom - not just cult media, but specific nations/cultures, cooking, and more
2 dimensions of places: 1. places have functions, 2. places of substitute consumption - driven by restrictions of time, money, or place
There's lots of great conversation happening in this session but I got distracted and am a little overwhelmed, sorry.
Eva talked about my question about Takarazuka, pointing out that while Takarazuka (Japanese all-women musical theater) has a strict division between otokoyaku (performers who always play men) and musumeyaku (performers who always play women) 1/2
...Chinese and South Korean immersive theaters that feature all-male casts might have a performer play a man in one production and a woman in another.