#it's no surprise that I made cosplay a part of my enjoyment of kpop

[authortist]

Report Contents: Anomaly Detection

"Explanatory Notes: Questionable beings have been spotted around the globe, causing abnormal activities. It has been witnessed by many that these beings, radiating red energy, move and create phenomena beyond [the] human level. From research it has been confirmed there are a total of six of these exotic beings. They are assumed to be similar in form with <EXO>, a being that has been tracked for long now."

New Information: Assets of the Red Force

X-EXO Subjects: X-04, X-61, X-88

Powers: Light, fire, and teleportation

Class: Clones

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Cosplayers: @ninquelote-and-culurien as X-04 [Baëkhyun], @chaysingthesun as X-88 [Kӓi], and me, @authortist, as X-61 [Chanyeøl]

Photographer: Stephen Folmar

[naomidc2935]

SwampCon - 3/27

Yesterday was my first time attending Swampcon and I had a really fun time. I attended a few different things including the J-club performance, artists/vendors areas, Idol fest, Genesis’s random dance play, and the dance contest. Despite being a fan of Kpop and anime I had never been to a convention before so attending yesterday, I was really able to see how our class discussions related to the environment of the convention.

One of the things we discussed was that otakus will use cosplay as a way to possess their objects of desire. That is actually something my friend and I participated in. We did a closet cosplay as Howl and Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle. Someone had even asked to take a picture with us. We noticed more elaborate cosplays as well at Swampcon such as someone dressed in a blow-up Pikachu costume. My friend had taken a picture with someone who had a really good Bakugo costume too. In the Idolfest, we saw groups of people dressed up as anime characters performing the theme songs of those animes. I was able to connect it back to our class discussion about possession. For fans of anime, since anime is fictional, doing things such as cosplay and performing anime songs lets them get closer to their object of desire. 

I was especially surprised with the artists and vendors section. It reminded me a lot of the dojinshi convention from Genshiken. I saw many cute fan-made merchandises and even bought a few things myself. This goes back to our discussion of how shadow cultural capital can lead to economic capital. The artists put a lot of time into perfecting their crafts, earning them a high level of prestige within the fandom community. Through their artistic production, they are able to earn economic capital. I saw a variety of things including perfumes, drawings, dice, keychains, jewelry, clothing, and even computer keys that were either handcrafted or customized to suit a variety of fandoms.

During the Idolfest, random dance play, and dance contest, everyone was hyping each other up during all the performances. I think this says a lot about fandom communities. There is a strong sense of camaraderie and support within the fandom community and this is due to the shared experiences we share. For instance, as Kpop dancers, my club knows how intimidating it can be to perform nonmainstream songs in public so we really tried to hype all the dancers that attended the random dance play and dance contest. 

My favorite part of SwampCon was definitely the random dance play that my club had hosted. Although I have been dancing to Kpop for quite a bit now, I never had the opportunity to attend this type of event before. I had a really good time and the atmosphere was so enjoyable. Even if you were the only one who knew the dance (and even if you only partly knew it), everyone still clapped and cheered. I think this says a lot about fandom culture and identity. The culture promotes an incredibly supportive atmosphere when it comes to aspects such as art, cosplay, or performances and it helps to strengthen one’s connection to their cultural identity. I have definitely become less involved in both anime and Kpop culture over the last few years, but yesterday I was able to immerse myself more, and attending the random dance play gave me a stronger sense of a connection to the Kpop culture. 

One thing I learned from yesterday was how similar the anime and Kpop fandom culture was. For instance, I thought dressing up in stage outfits and dancing to idol songs was mostly a Kpop thing but at Idolfest, we saw people do the same thing but with anime characters and anime songs/ Jpop songs. The artists and vendors themselves sold a variety of merchandise relating to both anime and Kpop and other fandoms. Even though in Kpop, the object of desire is an idol and that is real, unlike anime, as fans there is a clear space between idol and fan. Thus, in order to feel closer to a said idol, people participate in textual productivity, art, crafts, and replicating performances much like how anime fans do the exact same things. Overall, I had a lot of fun at this Swamp Con and look forward to doing it again.