For your third creative exploration, you will be exploring media representations of culture and identity, intersectionality and justice – and how you can critique and reimagine those representations by using the transformative creative practices that have been developed within fan communities.
Your task for this exploration is to come up with an idea for a transformative media intervention: it might be a remix video, a work of fan fiction, a piece of visual art, a critical essay, a podcast, or something else. Our in-class practice will give you the skills to create a fanvid if you so wish, but if you have an idea for an intervention in a different form, don’t constrain your imagination. You will not be creating the actual work for this assignment, just planning it out; but you may wish to complete it for your final project, so bear that in mind.
Your submission for this creative exploration will be a reflection on your idea, which you will post on the blog by Friday November 3.
In your reflection, make sure to respond to the following questions as they relate to your idea:
- Which media source(s) are you responding to? What are the ongoing debates in and around this media text or fandom? Why is your response necessary?
- What form will your intervention take? Why did you choose this form?
- How will your creative work be structured? For example, if you are imagining a remix video, what will the sound and visual source be? Are there particular juxtapositions and sequences you can imagine? If you’re thinking of fan fiction, what will the plot be and which characters will be centered? If it’s a critical essay, what key points will you make? You might find that it’s easier to answer these questions if you make a start on the creative process.
- Who is your audience? For example, are you creating work for people who are already familiar with this source and these debates? For people who have lived familiarity with a particular intersection? For students and scholars? For people who have never thought about this issue before?
- If you were to finish this project, where would you go from here? What are some of the challenges that you imagine you might face? How might you go about overcoming them?
Write at least 700 words. This creative exploration is due on the blog on November 3.