What Art Educators Can Learn from the Fan-Based Artmaking of Adolescents and Young Adults

My interests in popular stories as themes in the art of adolescents and young adults were inspired while observing my adolescent daughter and her friends create aft based on their interests in Marvel Comics, Japanese manga (comics), and fantasy novels. I became curious about expressive behaviois of adolescents and young adults who identify themselves as fans of various media-conveyed literatures, such as superhero, fantasy, and science fiction stories from comics, printed or graphic novels, movies, or televised serials. I came to wonder what in these subjects attract and motivate some fans to draw copies or create reproductions of the visual stories. My curiosity about the relationship between these youths perceptions of themselves as participants in fan cultures and as artists has compelled me to question how fans, including many who do not seem interested in taking art courses in school, learn to create highly skilled, albeit ostensibly derivative, artworks. In addition, I am interested in how answers to these questions might inform the formal art education of middle and high school students.Ovet the past several years, I have been seeking answers to these and other questions about fan participatory artmaking by interviewing adolescents and young adults who are actively creating two fan-based art forms - fanart, and cosphy. Cosplay involves creating costumes, dressing, and performing or posing as charactets derived from popular literatures, especially Japanese manga and anime ot animations (Manifold, 2008). Fanart is a catchall term for any two- or three-dimensional work that copies, appropriates from, or illustrates mediaproduced stories and characters (Jenkins, 1992). Forms of fanart include exact copies of popular characters such as Garfield, Pokemon, or Spiderman; original illustrations based on printed or cinematic narratives such as the Harry Potter, Star Wars, or Buffi/ the Vampire SL·yer series; and illustrations that incorporate the appearance of actors who play roles in these narratives (Jenkins, 2006). Fanart and cosplay are exhibited or performed live at fan conventions and shared online through personal websites, fanart galleries, and cosplay sites.The topic of when, why, and how adolescents and young adults are drawn to create art based on narratives of popular culture and what sense they make of these activities, which is the focus of this article, should be of interest to art teachers charged with developing art curricula and instruction for students in grades 7 through 12. The study, which I describe, finds that fan interests often begin during middle school years and continue into adulthood. Many art educators see middle school art courses as a last chance to capture youth's interests in art and artmaking. Afterwards, art, as one of several elective choices available to students, competes against pressures that focus on academic disciplines perceived to be more important and more likely to lead to financially secure careers (Fowler, 2001). Proponents of Visual Culture Art Education (VCAE) tell us that the way people read and interact with visual images influences the way they think and act within society, therefore, all students should be taught about visual culture, whether or not they aspire to careers as artists (Freedman, 2003b). Because media narratives, fanart, and cosplay are exemplars of visual culture, determining why youth are drawn to become fans and create art based on stories from popular culture, how they learn the skills required of fanartmaking or cosplay, and the relationship of these creative behaviors to youth's evolving perceptions of themselves as artists or art makers is justified. Information about motivations and practices of fanart and cosplay might inform art educators regarding pedagogical strategies for attracting students to study visual arts and art curricula appropriate to the needs of youth in mediasaturated societies.Exploring Meaning Through Affective SemioticsPassionate attraction to particular characters and intense feelings experienced when engaging with fan phenomenon define the fan experience (Jenkins, 1992). …