Beginning Turn On, Tune In, Get Out: Rethinking Escapism and Domestic Spectatorship
articulates the need for a theory of escapism, specifically as respite
has never felt the need to get out more than the past few years but where is there to go?
Theory: escapism as a spectatorial mode, one way viewers interpolate cultural objects
"Escapism is a desire that viewers bring to media irrespective of its genre, spectacle, exhibition context, or reception culture"
Viewers bring escapism, not vice versa.
Critics call things "escapist" when they think media's artistic merit doesn't align with its popularity
Escapism is frequently deployed in reference to media that has large fan communities
Historicizing the term "escapist," which was coined in the 1930s. (Benson-Allott is including a lot of detail so look out for her book on this topic later.)
"Escapism" is used both to argue that art should uphold morals AND that art doesn't need to engage with contemporary issues.
"Escapist" is used by critics to indicate a disconnect between a piece of art and themselves.
Previous work (by only 2 scholars) looks at escapism and whose pleasure is marginalized.
Others have focused on genre but not looked at how or why viewers engage in escapism.
As a viewer's sensibility changes, the viewer needs different escape.
If different types of movies can provide escape in a shared geocultural moment, then escapism can't be located in a particular piece of media or genre.
Escape from what? Not necessarily about a change of locale. "If it were, all fantasy films would supply escape to all viewers."
"Escape may be hard to achieve, but it is not site-specific."
Lots of talk here about how what we're escaping is being ourselves, which makes me think about the Daniel Tiger song: "You can change your hair or what you wear but no matter what you do, you're still you."
"Because pleasure is a process, it represents an escap-ing, rather than an escape."
"It cannot be an end, because it ends."
We can find escapism in media that acknowledges inequity and injustice.
"Desiring escape is not the same as desiring oblivion or obliviousness..."
Seriously this work is super rich and I can't possibly capture it all in a Twitter thread.
Escape as ex-cendance: getting out so you can go back
#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.
#FSNNA2022 Live Blog: The New Bedroom Cultures
introducing the panel "The New Bedroom Cultures"
“The Growth of Fangirls and Fanfiction During the COVID-19 Lockdown” "A bit of an accidental autoethnographic activity"
Dissertation focused on Harley Quinn and her relationship with her fangirls. Argued that Harley moved from sexualized object of the male gaze to reclaimed character, and credits fanfiction with this move.
Interested in the transition of fans from producers to consumers.
Fell down a fanfiction rabbithole on TikTok.
Sociology theory about bedroom culture highlights bedroom as a sacred space for adolescent girls, originally considered bedroom as consumer space but more recent scholarship argues that bedroom culture includes production
The transition from consumer to producer was pressurized during lockdown, which led to a boom of fan engagement.
Discusses fannish bedroom cultures during the lockdown, fanfiction as a bedroom ritual. Presentation draws on interviews conducted during Master's.
Title of talk is “A Fandom of One’s Own: Fanfiction as a Bedroom Ritual During COVID-19”
Fanfiction is defined by intimacy, both in its topics and in the spaces it exists in.
Participants could personalize emotion via tags: hurt/comfort, enemies-to-loves, fluff...
"reception on a loop" You experience the original media, seek out fan-created media, engage in fan practices regularly, which drives you to seek out the next piece of new media.
Reading fanfiction is a personal ritual, "alone time"
Socialization in digital spaces allowed fans to maintain kinship and community.
notes that @andolfi_lea mentioned parasocial relationships which probably all of them have something to say about
Dr. Welsh-Burke's talk is “‘I Am on My KNEES’: TikTok as a New Site of Adolescent Sexual Desire”
looking at experience of female fans as producers and fans
Noticed enthusiastic display of sexual desire in caption of fan vid on TikTok, liked it and started to get more recs for things where people have "extreme affective responses"
This content on TikTok was a positive reclamation of the stereotype of fangirls as only interested in certain topics (e.g. sexy topics)
TikTok is an especially bedroom-y media space in terms of both creation and consumption.
presenting “Bedroom Cultures but Make It Enby Cottage Core: Reading Shakespeare as a Disabled Trans Fan”
warning: going to discuss bigotry, esp. transphobia, and safety
Discussing reading Shakespeare's "As You Like It" as a trans text. Rosalind & Celia live a queer-utopian cottagecore life in the Forest of Arden.
IRL when marginalized people meet each other it's not always self. There's bigotry related to different combos of marginalization.
In The Forest of Arden, it feels as if everyone is safe.
"If all those queer people running around in the forest are the monsters, then we have nothing to fear. Everyone is safe."
In the Forest of Arden, "everyone is always possibly polyamorous." It's bittersweet to contrast this with spaces in real life.
This contrast is more pronounced when the person doing the looking/reading is trans & disabled.
Anecdote about harassment at a coffee shop that ended with Dean feeling the owners of the shop would blame Dean for being a magnet for harassment if a similar incident happened again.
The "depressing, gray" bedroom experience is attractive because there aren't a lot of people that can harass you there.
There's an interesting relationship between trans' people's experience of being expected not to even exist outside and these fantasies of the cottagecore forest (and other safe spaces) inside.
In some fandoms, e.g. superhero and Star Wars, other people in fandoms perceive the source material as "serious" and were worried fangirls would "drag it down" because fangirls are interested in "silly things"
The discussion is getting really good but I'm struggling to keep up with tweets, sorry!
Saw Twitter thread about how there used to be no women in nerdy spaces and, of course, there were and many people argued against OP but sadly lots of people were also agreeing.
There's a similar phenomenon where people claim there weren't trans people in fan spaces in the past, which is patently untrue.
"It's interesting to think about the multiplicities of bedroom cultures that are getting made" - referring to a statement @DeanLeetal made about how different people need different forms of escape.
We need art of everyone in their own bedrooms engaging with their own bedroom cultures.
Creator of that original video on TikTok shut down their account. This leads to loss of a lot of born-digital stuff that it would be good to capture for methodology. (Come to our #FanLIS session and talk to us about born-digital preservation!)
As fans we have to do that work of archiving. ([@KimberlyHirsh](https://micro.blog/KimberlyHirsh): shout-out to @De_Kosnik's book Rogue Archives)
It's also an ethical question - if we've preserved something, do we keep studying it even after the creator has taken it down?
When fanfiction is brought up to creators/actors, it's often in a degrading way.
There's also an issue of consent with actors, who might not want to hear about what their characters get up to in fanfiction.
In chat, Erin Lee Mock points out "For many people, COVID lockdown was not an experience of isolation, but of greater carework obligations, etc. Is there space within discussion of "bedroom cultures" for these individuals, especially as relates to fan production?"
Talking about how even as teens, girls often have more caregiving responsibilities so in that sense bedroom cultures still works.
Points out that home is not always a safe space, especially for multiply marginalized people.
Luisa de Mesquita asks "I was wondering if there are any significant differences in engagement with fandom and fannish practices between those who were already 'established' fans and those who became fans during the pandemic?"
speculating that it will vary - some people will have come to fandom during the pandemic and stay in it for life, but others as they are less isolated will engage with fandom less
Kirsten Crowe asks "I wonder about the experience of college aged people returning to their childhood bedrooms and how that shaped fannish experiences in terms of bedroom culture during the pandemic"
Yes, thanks to pandemic I finished my MSc in my childhood bedroom, will finish my PhD in childhood bedroom, doing this from childhood bedroom 😄
That last tweet should've been from @SandbachElise.
It's really interesting to return to your childhood bedroom and engage with fandom on a new platform when you engaged with fandom there years ago.
It's interesting to note that we're in our bedrooms studying other people in their bedrooms.
A hike at Eno River State Park
Yesterday, W, M, my sister ME, and I went for a little hike at the Eno River State Park. I’d planned a little flat loop, but we didn’t know which access to use to get to it. We ended up at the Few’s Ford access and just walked the closest trail to where we parked, which turned out to be the Buckquarter Creek Trail.
We happened upon some folks from the Eno River Association, who had set up a tent, nets and water shoes, and little bins with water in them so people could catch little water animals and learn about them. It was a beautiful serendipitous occurrence and we had nowhere to be, so we stopped to join in. M found some water striders and a snail.
After they packed up, we continued down the trail, then stopped for a break so M could play on the rocks and fallen logs. While he was doing that, a great blue heron landed a ways from us. We watched it stretch its neck down to the water, then pull its neck upright. It was huge. Eventually it flew from one side of us to the other. Its wingspan was incredible. It’s a majestic bird.
Eventually, a tree wobbled under M and he fell in the water. We didn’t have a change of clothes, so we ended our break and started walking again. We made our way to the pedestrian bridge. It was a suspension bridge, and walking across it gave me a bit of vertigo. We continued on the other side of the river, then crossed the river on rocks when I heard a family ahead of us talking about an animal on the ground. I thought it might be a snake and W hates snakes, so we went ahead and crossed.
We finished up the trail and came home for a late lunch from Domino’s.
This was a super successful adventure, so I think we’ll try a hike every weekend while the weather is favorable.
When my brain won't read 📚
I hate when my brain won’t read, which it won’t today. Reading is my core way of interfacing with the world. The tools we use shape our thought processes, and writing and reading have been my primary tools since I was a small child. Reading heals me, distracts me from pain, comforts me when I’m lonely, and gives me new ways of thinking.
I know this inability to turn other people’s words into things that cohere for me will pass. And I can do audiobooks some. But there’s also something about the physicality of reading that I miss when I do that. So it is a great companion to reading text, especially for times it’s not smart to focus on texts like when I’m driving or trying to fall asleep.
Maybe I’ll try reading something middle grade instead of YA or adult and see if that helps.
Day 3, #TheSealeyChallenge, Rose, Li-Young Lee 📚
This is a gorgeous book, full of grief and beauty.
Selected quotes:
Water
In water
my sister is no longer
lonely. Her right leg is crooked and smaller
than her left, but she swims straight.
Her whole body is a glimmering fish.
Eating Alone
White rice steaming, almost done. Sweet green peas > fried in onions. Shrimp braised in sesame
oil and garlic. And my own loneliness.
What more could I, a young man, want.
Visions and Interpretations
Truth is, I’ve not seen my father
since he died, and, no, the dead
do not walk arm in arm with me.
Day 2 #TheSealeyChallenge, Leaves of Grass Book I: Inscriptions, Walt Whitman 📚
Selected quotes:
Eidolons
We seeming solid wealth, strength, beauty build,
But really build eidolons.
To the States
…Resist much, obey little
Thou Reader
Thou reader throbbest life and pride and love the same as I,
Therefore for thee the following chants.
Day 1 #TheSealeyChallenge, Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love, Keith S. Wilson 📚
Selected quotes:
6:45 pm
…God, it’s pretty.
But what does any of it mean?
A Unified Theory
You think, what if I am stuck like this? What if
I never change? So what.
Never change.
Moments are not for revision—
if they are lived honestly, they are open to one interpretation.
only. They make you like a child.
Of course that’s what they make.
#CLS2022: Creating Equitable and Inclusive Library Spaces in the Face of Obstacles
I didn’t get to liveblog/tweet this session because I was co-facilitating it, but I’m jotting down a few takeaways and a list of resources/links in hopes they will be of use to folks.
Our panelists were:
- Julie Stivers, middle school librarian at Mt. Vernon Middle School in Raleigh, NC
- Miles, a rising high school junior and former student of Julie’s
- Kym Powe, Children and YA Consultant, Connecticut State Library
- Juan Rubio, Digital Media and Learning Program Manager, Seattle Public Library
- Sandra Hughes-Hassell, Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science
We opened by asking the panelists to share their broad perspectives on creating equitable and inclusive library perspectives.
Connected Learning Lab Senior Research Manager Amanda Wortman took awesome notes on these. Here are some big ideas:
- Hold onto why you do the work.
- Recognize structural aspects of fostering equity and inclusion and simultaneously equip library staff to take individual action.
- Center the voices and experiences of youth themselves.
We then launched into some questions based on our work in the Transforming Teen Services for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion project. I basically acted as a clueless, well-intentioned librarian asking for help.
How do I know if I’m actually creating an inclusive space?
You might not be able to tell, but if your love for the work shines through, you’re moving in the right direction. When your space starts to feel like a living room and a community hub, keep doing what you’re doing and grow more in the same vein. Look at yourself and your colleagues; what unstated or invisible expectations are you communicating? They might be making the space less inclusive.
I think I’m creating inclusive spaces but people aren’t actually coming into them. What should I do?
LEAVE THE BUILDING. There are a lot of reasons people might not come. Go to where they already are. Consider not just your own actions, but those of your colleagues. Are other people in the space making it less equitable and inclusive? Build authentic relationships, in or out of the library. The relationship with the person is more important than the presence of the physical space. Change the power structures in the space; design with youth rather than for them.
I know I need to leave the building but I’m overwhelmed. How do I start?
You start by starting. Team up with a friend. Build on the work of a colleague near or far who has already gone out; learn from their experiences. Don’t stop going out after one attempt doesn’t work. Move on to the next potential place or partner. Keep trying. You’ll eventually find the right fit.
Okay I’m ready! But I talked to my supervisor and they said I can’t leave the building. What’s my next step?
Relationships are important here, too. Build a relationship with your supervisor. Help them understand the value of the work you’re doing and why it’s important to go into the community. Write a formal proposal for the supervisor. Include outcomes and impact. Make it clear it won’t take you out of the building for a whole day at a time.
How can school and public librarians think beyond just going into each others’ spaces? How can we get to places that don’t have library or school vibes?
Go to where they spend time outside of school. If you’re partnering with a school, think about going to extracurricular events that don’t feel so formal and school-y. Recognize that what matters most is that youth get what they need, not who provides it or where.
I want to learn more! What should I do next?
- Attend events like the Connected Learning Summit.
- Look for free professional development like Project READY.
- Talk to your state library.
Links
- YALSA Article describing #LibFive
- Images of Practice: #LibFive at Mount Vernon Middle School (featuring youth researchers!)
- #LibFive Infographic
- VRtality website
- Article in American Libraries about VRtality
- “From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces”
- Project READY: Reimagining Equity & Access for Diverse Youth
- GELS: Growing Equitable Library Services
- Equity Literacy Institute
- Project ENABLE (one of the models for Project READY!)
- WebJunction
- Radical Hospitality
- Racial Equity Institute
- EmbraceRace
My Notes from #CLS2022: OPENING PLENARY - Staying Connected, Fueling Innovation, Affirming Core Values: Three Learning Organizations Carrying Lessons Forward from the Twin Pandemics
Getting today's plenary started - Staying Connected, Fueling Innovation, Affirming Core Values: Three Learning Organizations Carrying Lessons Forward from the Twin Pandemics
is moderator, beginning the panel. Talking about carrying forward lessons from pandemic crisis into "neverending pandemic."
invites attendees to share something good that came out of the pandemic for them. There are too many to share all here! But big themes are family time, taking breaks, conversations about accessibility.
Jessica, let's start with you. We think of a library as a physical space where people go. What happened with your library during the pandemic? What can other people, in a library or otherwise, learn from your experiences?
works with Cloud901, a teen learning lab in Memphis Public Libraries, work with STEM/STEAM, project-based learning, and connected learning.
Closed for about a month, partnered with other city divisions & community organizations. Metropolitan Interfaith Association - library staff boxed food, were drivers, were able to get into community with access to library materials, worked with p
Worked with Parks & Rec and other divisions to disseminate information about social services. A great opportunity to get out and reach out to communities who were underserved or couldn't readily come to the library.
Previously divisions were siloed but now they can connect to serve the community.
Shifted to online programming. With that program, they touched people in communities across the country, not just Memphis.
Able to work with people who wouldn't normally come to the library for a myriad of reasons - anxiety in social settings, other reasons - able to access library programming at a comfort level that worked best for them.
A lot more families at online programming. A lot of parents working alongside kids during camps. Opportunity for family to get together & bond and parents became library advocates.
Understanding & seeing that library staff need to recognize in every aspect where barriers are, even when we don't readily see them.
Online programming was wonderful, but what about people without home internet? What about requiring supplies for a program?
What barriers are out there? How can we break those down? Wifi hot spots, takeaway supplies. Producing programs that only use things readily available at home or brick & mortar store.
With population 30-40% below the poverty line, people have to choose - do they send their kids to an enrichment opportunity, or do they feed them?
Really promising: holistic vision of youth & families & what they need. Intersection of innovation and equity. "We can't do this for everybody, so we're not going to do it at all." So iterate to make it accessible for more people.
runs a clubhouse that had to move online. It was a challenge. Hearing some commonalities between ListoAmerica, an afterschool program that serves primarily Mexican community, and library already.
ListoAmerica is part of The Computer Clubhouse, a network. Had to shut down physical space, but within about 2 - 3 weeks, UCI PhDs were able to support creating the clubhouse online for the same hours online.
Tried to replicate as much as possible the pre-pandemic experience but had to be innovative. Started member-to-member meetups because new members would be isolated.
Members are youth. Usually middle school & high school. Connected new members with mentors.
Created hybrid programs. Created pick-up point for materials to pick up at one time and conduct sessions later on.
People would make themselves available in online community at specific time so other people could come discuss with them.
Temptation is to just learn the technology and gain skills, but goal of ListoAmerica is to support creation, not just skill building. Connect people with interests - for example music-interested youth and video-interested youth collaborate on music video.
Mexican culture is important. Mentors were almost all Mexican. Mexican American members often had parents who were undocumented and thus didn't want to come in. Mentor created entire Discord channel in Spanish and invite family members in.
works in Tacoma school district in Washington State. Fortunate to have a school board and superintendent who embraced pandemic as a community with grace and empathy.
In March 2020 decided to be as pro-active as possible. Set up design around an online school that they expected to have about 400 kids, ended up with about 5000 out of 30000 who wanted an online experience.
over 250 staff members, community eager to keep students safe in the online world. Quickly shifted gears into evolving into high quality. It was difficult because staff hadn't been trained in online teaching.
Grace for staff and students formed a community. While other districts are sprinting back to "normal," Tacoma has moved toward redefining and reimagining new normal.
Online school is now a fully-functional school with about 2000 students. Tacoma is also introducing a flex program to allow students to experience both face-to-face and online learning, which allows flexibility in their schedules.
Tacoma's been working on a whole student initiative and this moved them toward a whole community perspective.
When is an online environment better than an in-person environment? When is it a weak facsimile of a personal environment?
Didn't think online clubhouse would work, for example "creative collision" in small space where people would bump into each other and notice each others' work and ask about it.
Somehow, with the hybrid model, it worked. Occasionally, we would get together in very careful (socially distanced, masked) groups, and were able to go global. Connected with clubhouse in Mexico City. Never were able to do that before.
That enhanced the cultural background, that it's okay to be Mexican in the United States, it's something to be proud of. Opened Mexican American citizens' eyes to what it's like to be in Mexico and what technology is like there.
Able to connect online with people from all over. Were able to ask colleges to send virtual tours for them to share with people who couldn't travel to visit.
This summer, they started back in person with summer camp. Every camp this year people have come back with people they met in camp and they've continued to work together. This didn't happen before.
It's a "Yes, and." Redefined understanding of connected. Multitiered opportunities to connect with adult learners, assessing online experiences combined with occasional face-to-face meetings led to some simple tech innovation.
Kindergarteners took a field trip to the zoo, some in person, but many remotely who were working in teams and engaging during chat because the schools had taught that school. Recorded the session and now it can be reused with different groups.
Online learning is not the best path for every kid, but it very well could be for some.
Teachers were not only livecasting, but were interacting with students online. Students could see their own teacher.
Was the number of participants the same, larger, smaller, different people in online programs versus face to face?
Old members already had established connections. New members would introduce themselves and old members would connect with them.
Scale expanded going remotely. The question now is should we go back to some form of physical?
It depended on the program. Camps were larger than we anticipated. Some other programs like college virtual tours were huge numbers. Some programs just had 2 to 3 people in them. We counted it as a win whatever it was.
Club and extended learning opportunities tended to grow online.
Transitioning to online was already a struggle, so any number of kids we counted as a win.
We've gone back to in-person but there will always be some kind of hybrid component to a good bit of our programs.
We didn't have multiple-hour programs. They were very short, intensive. We would talk, but the staff made a lot of video work that youth could not only watch, but reference.
Having videos to reference helped kids who fell behind or missed sessions. We shared it with other library systems in Tennessee.
Have there been opportunities to connect and collaborate with parents and other community organizations?
We had existing partnerships and it was exciting to see those partners pivot with us.
One thing that's worked for us is other non-profit engagement. We got a call from an organization in another county that wants to open up a clubhouse and a remote clubhouse working with us.
Final thoughts?
What we have found is that for us, there's no "getting back to normal." There's working to address the shift in our youth. We've seen a number of youth ask for programming and services around mental health, being engaged with social & economic issues.
We're shifting and rebuilding in some areas with how we continue to service our youth. What we did before for branding & strategic planning can stay in place but we recognize that the way we were doing it needs to shift.
A young lady who started with us in middle school and is now at Cal State University Fullerton, whose world was a 2-mile radius when she started with us, now has a global perspective and spent a semester in South Korea.
It's a vulnerable celebration of acknowledging that we don't know what we don't know. Adam Grant: "We live in a rapidly changing world where we need to spend as much time rethinking as we do thinking."