Fandom as Methodology

Fandom as Methodology examines fandom as a set of practices for approaching and writing about art. The collection includes experimental texts, autobiography, fiction, and new academic perspectives on fandom in and as art.
Key to the idea of “fandom as methodology” is a focus on the potential for fandom in art to create oppositional spaces, communities, and practices, particularly from queer perspectives, but also through transnational, feminist and artist-of-colour fandoms.
The book provides a range of examples of artists and writers working in this vein, as well as academic essays that explore the ways in which fandom can be theorised as a methodology for art practice and art history.
Fandom as Methodology proposes that many artists and art writers already draw on affective strategies found in fandom. With the current focus in many areas of art history, art writing, and performance studies around affective engagement with artworks and imaginative potentials, fandom is a key methodology that has yet to be explored.
Interwoven into the academic essays are lavishly designed artist pages in which artists offer an introduction to their use of fandom as methodology.