From Dalek half balls to Daft Punk helmets: Mimetic fandom and the crafting of replicas

Abstract

Mimetic fandom is a surprisingly understudied mode of (culturally masculinized) fan activity in which fans research and craft replica props. Mimetic fandom can be considered as (in)authentic and (im)material, combining noncommercial status with grassroots marketing or brand reinforcement as well as fusing an emphasis on material artifacts with Web 2.0 collective intelligence. Simply analyzing mimetic fandom as part of fannish material culture fails to adequately assess the nonmaterial aspects of this collaborative creativity. Two fan cultures are taken as case studies: Dalek building groups and Daft Punk helmet constructors. These diverse cases indicate that mimetic fandom has a presence and significance that moves across media fandoms and is not restricted to the science fiction, fantasy, and horror followings with which it is most often associated. Mimetic fandom may be theorized as an oscillatory activity that confuses binaries and constructions of (academic/fan) authenticity. This fan practice desires and pursues a kind of ontological bridging or unity—from text to reality—that is either absent or less dominant in many other fan activities such as cosplay, screen-used prop collecting, and geographical pilgrimage. Fan studies may benefit from reassessing the place of mimesis, especially in order to theorize fan practices that are less clearly transformative in character.

Vinyl records, metal fandom and fan labour: Productions and exchanges at the intersection of the cultural and financial economies

“…A final point needs to be made regarding fan productions that enter the financial economy. Hills (2014) has pointed out that material fan productions like the ones described throughout this article have a bad name in fandom studies. He explains that material productions are often seen as inferior and as privileged fan practices because they are concerned with imitation, and ultimately result in restating canon, as opposed to transformational fandom associated with people that have been excluded from the production of discourse.…”

“…As I have argued, characterising material productions as "privileged" can be highly problematic in cases where fans lack the economic means to participate in cultural activities. On the other hand, an outcome of the mimetic character of those activities for fans is to become "part of a grassroots promotion for a brand" (Hills 2014). Michał's homemade band t-shirts and vinyl record concert souvenirs might indeed represent instances of fan creativity, ways of tackling material disenfranchisement, and sources of cultural and symbolic capital (i.e.…”

“…It asks how my research participant engages with the raw materials of culture and the strategic narratives (in both semantic and material terms) of the powerful. Is he successful in producing his own tactical narratives, and how valuable are concepts such as affirmational fandom and mimetic fandom (Hills 2014) in helping us reflect upon the character of such productions? How are they situated and exchanged within the cultural field and the economic field?…”

A Sense of Presence: Mediating an American Apocalypse

“…Hills talks about props as "framing immateriality," while they "convey a sense of boundary crossing, of moving from textuality to reality." Props "move across" the lines of the fictional and the material producing an "ontological bridging" between the story world and everyday life (Hills 2014). In this sense, replica props based on films offer an incarnational aesthetic.…”

Souvenirs of the Apocalypse

“…For Hills, props "convey a sense of boundary crossing" and sit at the junction between fictional and real. 19 Thus, props can be quasi-sacramental, functioning as material bridges between the world as we know it and the world the fan longs for. In 1997, Charlton Heston called the gun an "extraordinary symbolic tool standing for the full measure of human dignity and liberty," pointing to the "smoking muskets" of the "ragtag rebels" who fought for American independence.…”