Abby Waysdorf | Utrecht University (original) (raw)

Papers by Abby Waysdorf

Media fandom has moved beyond the screen, the page, and even the convention hall. It is now an in... more Media fandom has moved beyond the screen, the page, and even the convention hall. It is
now an integral part of the tourist industry, shaping how people imagine and experience
distant cultures, times and places. Though the topic of film tourism has received attention
lately from a wide variety of scholars, still little is known about the film tourist experience.
Using interviews and participant observation with Game of Thrones tourists who visited
filming locations in Northern Ireland and Dubrovnik, this article asks how, and in what ways,
film tourists involve their imagination in practice when experiencing film locations. Drawing
on concepts from fan studies, the article identifies three types of imagination pursued by
visitors to Game of Thrones locations: hyperdiegetic, technical and ‘historical.’

(Open access: click link to read)

This article examines the visitor experience of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWOHP) theme... more This article examines the visitor experience of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWOHP) theme park at Universal Studios Orlando. The park is hugely popular and has been embraced by the series’ devoted but critical fanbase. Prior research on theme parks has generally focused on critiques of their form, leading to a limited understanding of their appeal. This article asks how fan-visitors interpret this simulated environment, and what leads them to embrace it. It does this with an ethnographic approach, utilizing in-depth interviews with 15 visitors combined with participant observation. We show how WWOHP is understood by its visitors as an adaptation of the series into physical space, via the medium of the theme park, and how the visitor’s experience is shaped through use of ironic imagination. In doing so, we present a new understanding of the immersive media experience of theme parks.

by Nicolle Lamerichs, Anne Kustritz, Javier Lozano Delmar, Melanie Bourdaa, Justyna Janik, Joanna Płaszewska, Piotr Sterczewski, Pia Sundqvist, Vera Cuntz-Leng, Abby Waysdorf, Eleonora Benecchi, Marta Tyminska, Agata Wlodarczyk, and Bethan Jones

Transformative Works and Cultures, 2015

Guest Edited Issue Table of Contents Editorial: "Fan studies as global media and audience stu... more Guest Edited Issue

Table of Contents
Editorial: "Fan studies as global media and audience studies," by Anne Kustritz

Praxis
"Antifan activism as a response to MTV's The Valleys," by Bethan Jones

"Springsteen fans, #bruceleeds, and the tweeting of locality," by Bill Wolff

"Representation of American versus non-American fans in Baillie Walsh's Springsteen & I," by Maryn Claire Wilkinson

"Cultural differences: Polish fandom of Welcome to Night Vale," by Agata Włodarczyk, Marta Tyminska

"Online Italian fandoms of American TV shows," by Eleonora Benecchi

"The creation of football slash fan fiction," by Abby Waysdorf

Pedagogy
"Fandom: The classroom of the future," by Paul J. Booth

"Watching Dallas again 1: Doing retro audience research," by Amanda Gilroy

"Watching Dallas again 2: Locating viewing pleasures—An audience study of the new Dallas," by Raquel L. Raj, Mabel Wale, Joscha-Nicolai Spoellmink, Arelis Dania, Amanda Gilroy

"Watching Dallas again 3: Reassessing Ien Ang's Watching Dallas," by Toon Heesakkers, Ward van Hoof, Anne Jager, Amanda Gilroy

Symposium
"A brief history of fan fiction in Germany," by Vera Cuntz-Leng, Jacqueline Meintzinger

"A connected country: Sweden—Fertile ground for digital fandoms," by Christina Olin-Scheller, Pia Sundqvist

"Finding Poland: Negotiating the local and the global and the semiperipheral identity of Polish SF&F fandom," by Joanna Kucharska, Piotr Sterczewski, Bartłomiej Schweiger, Joanna Płaszewska, Justyna Janik

"Case study of French and Spanish fan reception of Game of Thrones," by Mélanie Bourdaa, Javier Lozano Delmar

"Slash fandom, sociability, and sexual politics in Putin's Russia," by Sudha Rajagopalan

Review:
"Online games, social narratives, by Esther MacCallum-Stewart," by Nicolle Lamerichs

Journal of Transformative Works and Cultures, 2015

Although sports fandom and fan fiction are often thought of as different worlds, in the contempor... more Although sports fandom and fan fiction are often thought of as different worlds, in the contemporary media environment, this is not the case. Sport is a popular source text for fan fiction, and high-level European football, one of the world's most watched sports, has long had an online fan fiction presence. In a study of the LiveJournal community Footballslash over the 2011–12 European football season, I investigate what makes football a suitable source text for fan fiction, especially slash fan fiction; what fan fiction authors are doing with football; and what this suggests about how football and fan fiction are used in the present day. I present a new understanding of football as a media text to be transformed as well as provide an in-depth look into how this type of real person slash is developed and thought of by its practitioners. In doing so, I show what happens when fandoms and fan practices converge in the 21st century. [Full paper available at URL, open-access journal.]

In this personal essay, the author discusses negotiation of identity in the various spaces of foo... more In this personal essay, the author discusses negotiation of identity in the various spaces of football fandom.

Conference Presentations by Abby Waysdorf

Since 2010, the biggest draw at the Universal Studios theme parks is The Wizarding World of Harry... more Since 2010, the biggest draw at the Universal Studios theme parks is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. WWOHP is emblematic of a new trend in park design that promises deeper immersion into a story-world, and has been embraced by the public and the series’ fanbase. Why has it been so successful? Prior research on theme parks largely focuses on critiques of their form, leading to a limited understanding of their appeal to visitors. This paper addresses this lack through an ethnographic study of WWOHP in Orlando. Utilizing in-depth interviews with 15 Harry Potter fan-visitors and participant observation, we show how WWOHP is understood as an adaptation of the series into physical space, via the medium of the theme park, and how the visitor’s experience is shaped through use of the ironic imagination (Saler 2012). In doing so, I present a new understanding of the immersive experience of theme parks.

While most discussion of fannish engagement with place focuses on visiting the “actual” sites of ... more While most discussion of fannish engagement with place focuses on visiting the “actual” sites of filming or setting (Hills 2002, Brooker 2007, Reijnders 2011), for Harry Potter fans at least, there is an alternative. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a section of the Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando, presents itself as the ultimate in fan pilgrimage – a complete and explorable place of the Harry Potter narrative world, one that invites the fan to “follow in Harry’s footsteps” and visit what he did, from the Three Broomsticks pub to Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes.
The use of popular characters in theme parks is nothing new, but the scope and style of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter brings it closer to the ideal of virtual reality, a fully realized, interactive, and immersive media landscape. Its status as an “authentic” recreation of two important locations in the diegetic world, the village of Hogsmeade and the wizarding London neighborhood of Diagon Alley, gives it an identity of going “beyond” theming into a true physical encounter with the world (albeit one under the supervision of a major media conglomerate, as part of its broader transmedia strategy for a lucrative franchise). It is that experience that I investigate here. Utilizing ethnographic methods, including participant observations and 15 in-depth interviews with Harry Potter fan-tourists, I look at how fans experience this simulated environment. I investigate what fans find meaningful about the experience, how they navigate and play with the divisions between fantasy and reality, how their fandom shapes and is shaped by this embodied encounter with the narrative places, and how this balances with the park’s commercial ambitions. In doing so, I present new insights into the experience of immersive media environments as well as what “being there” means to fans today.

This paper explores the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a Harry Potter themed area within the la... more This paper explores the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a Harry Potter themed area within the larger park of Universal Studios Orlando. Not only featuring the standard theme park attractions of thrill rides and shows, it is a reproduction of several regions of the narrative world, inviting the fan to “follow in Harry’s footsteps” and become part of the story. I look at how the park creates a playful and immersive engagement with the Harry Potter universe, drawing on the study of virtual reality and digital games to explore how it is understood as a “real-life” simulation, one that promises real physical interaction with the narrative. Its status as an authentic recreation means it is presented as the ultimate fan pilgrimage, the chance to play with the borders of reality and imagination and truly experience the story-world. However, this experience comes at a cost: this is a corporate construction and part of the broader transmedia strategy for the Harry Potter franchise, with proscribed notions of what this playfulness should be and how the space should be participated in (along with what should be bought while there).

A new round of tourism advertisements for Northern Ireland will feature not murals or Bushmills, ... more A new round of tourism advertisements for Northern Ireland will feature not murals or Bushmills, but Game of Thrones, the popular HBO high-fantasy drama. Much of the filming of the show is done there, and while Northern Ireland tourism officials are looking to boost the numbers, many fans of the show have already made trips there in order to see the “real” Westeros.
Neither of these developments are all that surprising. In recent years, so-called “film induced” (Beeton 2005) tourism has become an important facet of the tourism industry, a way for regions to differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded global tourist market. Guides to filming locations are found in newspapers and airline magazines, showcasing them as general sightseeing spots for everyone. The study of this kind of tourism has likewise been increasing (for an overview, see Connell, 2012), yet there is still much to be learned about how this is experienced by tourists as a part of their fandom, rather than as an example of mediated reality or something that needs to be managed by locales.
This paper addresses this lack by analyzing film tourism from a fan studies perspective. Based on fieldwork and 31 interviews conducted on Game of Thrones fan-tourists in Northern Ireland and Dubrovnik, Croatia, it looks at how tourism works as a fan
practice: how fans interact with locations as fans, how it works (or not) with other fan practices, and what motivates people to visit. As this practice has become somewhat normalized, it also provides a way to examine the ways in which fandom and “being a fan” are seen today, by both “fandom” and the general public. This paper therefore presents new insights into the ways in which fandom now operates, and what that suggests about its future.

#kingslanding reads the hashtag of a picture of a smiling couple atop the walls of the Old City o... more #kingslanding reads the hashtag of a picture of a smiling couple atop the walls of the Old City of Dubrovnik, posted on social media site Instagram. This description signifies the city’s new identity for many: that of King’s Landing, the capital city of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros from the hit HBO drama Game of Thrones (2011- ). Locations play a major role in the program, which focuses on the fight for the throne of a fantasy kingdom in which where a character is from and inhabits matters deeply. The opening credits enforce this sort of place-based thinking: instead of images of actors, a stylized map portraying each major location is displayed.
In this, Game of Thrones, based on a popular series of books, follows the traditions of fantasy literature. As Stefen Ekman points out, “[w]hether provided for authentication, understanding, inner consistency, or world expansion, maps are expected to be supplied in high-fantasy novels today.” (Ekman 2013, 14) The maps provide the understanding of the worlds of “high” fantasy, fantasy that takes place in fictional worlds entirely outside our own, and give them a distinct sense of place that makes them feel real and visitable. Yet this world, while separate from ours, is not entirely disconnected. As is common with its genre (Young 2010), the culture of Game of Thrones’ fantasy world of Westeros is based on that of medieval Europe, featuring kings, knights, swordfights, and castles. Its fans think of Game of Thrones as a more “realistic” depiction of this period than other fantasy works, with a more authentic sense of the medieval period and its way of life.
Part of this authenticity is based on its use of locations. Its large budget, for a television show, enables a great deal of on-location filming scattered in various locations throughout Europe. Instead of relying entirely on built sets, it utilizes “real-world” landscapes and historical buildings in order to create its fictional spaces. As the fanbase of the program has grown, these locations gain a new meaning for many incoming tourists. Commercial tours of filming locations have begun in Croatia, Northern Ireland, and Iceland, and many travelers have also made up their own itineraries of Game of Thrones places to go. As the set is closed to fans, it is these already-existing spaces that have attracted those wishing to see the “real” places of filming. For those who visit these locations, they are therefore experiencing two places: that of the “real world” location, with an existing historical narrative, and that of the fantasy world that shares its space.
It is this interaction that is the focus of this paper. It asks how fictional narratives affect the experience of places that have existing, long-standing place narratives. This builds upon previous work done on media tourism (Couldry 1998, Hills 2002, Torchin 2002, Beeton 2005, Brooker 2007, Roesch 2009, Buchmann et al 2010, Reijnders 2011, Peaslee 2011, Connell 2012, Lee 2012) and presents new insights into this phenomenon. First, it analyzes the way that fictional narratives affect the experience of historical narratives and vice-versa, looking at how the two interact thought fandom and tourism and the impacts they have on each other rather than thinking of the two as separate experiences of place. Game of Thrones’ combination of pure fantasy and “historical realism” makes it an ideal case to explore this relation, and the use of historic locations means that the two kinds of place narratives are equally prominent. Secondly, it takes a tourist-centered approach to this form of tourism, focusing on what tourists themselves experience and the way these narratives interact for them. Finally, it situates the practice of film and television-inspired tourism as a fan activity, by understanding the visitor as a “fan-tourist” and introducing the idea of “demediation,” the desire of fans to take a text ‘out’ of the media, to analyze how this practice affects the fan-tourist relationship with the show narrative as well as with the places visited because of it.
This paper is based upon ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Northern Ireland and Dubrovnik, Croatia in the summer and fall of 2013. These locations were selected due to their prominence in location filming (the production is based in Northern Ireland and utilizes its landscapes for a wide variety of locations, while Dubrovnik stands in for the diegetic world’s capital city), the accessibility of filming sites, and the extent to which fan-tourists are already attracted to these locations. 31 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 48 fan-tourists, both on-site and afterwards, focusing on their relationship with the program, their trip, and their experiences and emotions while at the filming locations. Additionally, participant observation was conducted at commercial tours of filming locations in Dubrovnik and Northern Ireland, a fan convention with a fan-organized bus tour of locations in Northern Ireland, and with individual tourists and small groups at a filming location in Dubrovnik. Through this approach, this paper shows that for Game of Thrones fan-tourists, the ‘sense’ of European history inherent in both the show and the locations creates a new understanding of both places, with the fictional narrative enhancing the historical narrative and vice-versa. We show how the fan-tourist experience is not only about the fantasy world, but our world as well, and how it is the interaction between the two that makes the experience meaningful.