Using Fan Fiction to Bridge Students' Understanding of Science

The purpose of this chapter was to present current literature focused on integrating science and literacy and describe the teaching of a science unit of study that incorporated fanfiction literature in a fourth-grade classroom. Ms. Bardon's instructional techniques were focused on integrating science learning with reading and writing based within a fictional text read together as a classroom community throughout the unit of science study. The unit of study was presented alongside background literature to illustrate how such teaching is indicative of a larger movement in the educational field toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-based pedagogy and curriculum. The account of teaching was presented according to the close reading of the fictional text, the hands-on science activities, and the culminating student writing of a fanfiction narrative that constituted the assessment of science learning.

Tra sintesi vocale e divizzazione olografica Alcune considerazioni sul caso Hatsune Miku

Sviluppato e distribuito nel 2007 per promuovere la seconda versione del software Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku è diventato rapidamente un fenomeno proteiforme. Innanzitutto, Hatsune Miku è un sistema di voce sintetica che lo spettatore-ascoltatore può utilizzare per creare e condividere composizioni personalizzate. In secondo luogo, è una celebrità olografica che appare in concerti dal vivo, nonché l'eroina di una serie di videogiochi project DIVA. In terzo luogo, è la protagonista di numerosi titoli di fan fiction. Infine, dal 2013, è anche la cantante principale di un’opera. In questo articolo ci concentriamo sul caso Hatsune Miku, un esempio eccezionale di olografia nella musica pop, che radicalizza la questione dell'attaccamento dei fan e della celebrità, all'incrocio tra tecnologia, nuovi modelli economici emergenti all'interno delle industrie culturali, cultura dei fan e pubblico creativo.

Into the Furby-verse: The narrative production of electronic companions

<p>Since the mid 1990s, electronic objects designed for the sole purpose of providing human companionship have been widely available to consumers. Effectively, such objects offer a relationship, requiring interaction from a caregiver to “survive” and “evolve”. By offering an opportunity for human–nonhuman attachment, electronic companions raise questions regarding the value of relationships and what it is that makes something artificial or real. Following the success of Bandai Electronics’ Tamagotchi, Hasbro’s Electronic Furby became commercially available in 1998, and has since become a primary actor in marketing, design, media, and research narratives that raise hopeful, satirical, and fearful discussions surrounding our potential future with sociable and companionable technologies. All of these stories construct relationships with electronic companions that are generally human-centred and hierarchical, meaning that they look at electronic companionship in terms of how it will affect people. During this time there has also been a growth in online communities that engage in cultural production through fan fiction responses to existing cultural artefacts, including Hasbro’s Furby. In these stories, the notion of electronic companionship has been explored from diverse perspectives, including a non-hierarchical, animal-centred viewpoint that offers an unfamiliar view of interacting with nonhumans by bringing in aspects of the fantastic. By exploring these consumermade narratives there is an opportunity to understand how people articulate the boundaries of their relationships with technology. Through a combination of textual analysis, cultural studies and design research, this project aims to explore the role that storytelling plays in communicating and exploring the cultural and social impact of emerging companion technologies. An empirical analysis of seventy-two online fan fictions compares and contrasts popular themes and motifs in Furby narratives in terms of whether they render relationships with, and among Furbys as positive or negative. When positive, this analysis highlights that Furbys are treated in a similar way to animals in fantasy, as the story’s protagonist. Through these positively framed relationships we also learn what it means to be an ideal companion and caregiver to nonhumans, as the characters are empathic, compassionate, and selfless. My analysis of negative relationships with Furbys in fan fictions highlights a disconnection between the Furby characters as marketed by Hasbro, and what they become after entering the lives of their caregivers. Despite being sold as friendly and in need of care, Furbys often conjure monstrous and gothic associations that can be read as symptomatic of real anxieties surrounding technological innovation. Building on this preliminary analysis, eighteen still and moving image scenarios were designed to elicit stories, and sixty-four online responses were received. Analysis of these responses found that overwhelmingly fantasy-driven storytelling was used to explore the role of Furbys in the visual scenarios, and they were often written as biologically alive and equal to humans. Combined, my fan fiction and response analyses highlight the interplay between observational and imaginative storytelling to articulate the boundaries around human and nonhuman relationships. My thesis therefore suggests that design and marketing cannot set the boundaries of electronic companionship because they will always be redefined by the users, and designers could benefit from exploring the use of their designs once out in the world. My PhD research project offers: 1) a theoretical contribution by positing fantastic storytelling as a space for critical reflection and engagement with material objects, where the potential of electronic companionship can be explored beyond the imperatives of design and marketing; 2) an empirical case study of Furby fan fiction that expands the understanding of fan fiction to include consumer objects as source material for textual production; 3) a methodological contribution to interdisciplinary studies by combining narrative studies and design to explore our relationships with emerging technology, and 4) a design research contribution that explores user stories to support meaning making practices of storytelling about electronic companionship, and equally value the place of the nonhuman in design issues.</p>

Into the Furby-verse: The narrative production of electronic companions

<p>Since the mid 1990s, electronic objects designed for the sole purpose of providing human companionship have been widely available to consumers. Effectively, such objects offer a relationship, requiring interaction from a caregiver to “survive” and “evolve”. By offering an opportunity for human–nonhuman attachment, electronic companions raise questions regarding the value of relationships and what it is that makes something artificial or real. Following the success of Bandai Electronics’ Tamagotchi, Hasbro’s Electronic Furby became commercially available in 1998, and has since become a primary actor in marketing, design, media, and research narratives that raise hopeful, satirical, and fearful discussions surrounding our potential future with sociable and companionable technologies. All of these stories construct relationships with electronic companions that are generally human-centred and hierarchical, meaning that they look at electronic companionship in terms of how it will affect people. During this time there has also been a growth in online communities that engage in cultural production through fan fiction responses to existing cultural artefacts, including Hasbro’s Furby. In these stories, the notion of electronic companionship has been explored from diverse perspectives, including a non-hierarchical, animal-centred viewpoint that offers an unfamiliar view of interacting with nonhumans by bringing in aspects of the fantastic. By exploring these consumermade narratives there is an opportunity to understand how people articulate the boundaries of their relationships with technology. Through a combination of textual analysis, cultural studies and design research, this project aims to explore the role that storytelling plays in communicating and exploring the cultural and social impact of emerging companion technologies. An empirical analysis of seventy-two online fan fictions compares and contrasts popular themes and motifs in Furby narratives in terms of whether they render relationships with, and among Furbys as positive or negative. When positive, this analysis highlights that Furbys are treated in a similar way to animals in fantasy, as the story’s protagonist. Through these positively framed relationships we also learn what it means to be an ideal companion and caregiver to nonhumans, as the characters are empathic, compassionate, and selfless. My analysis of negative relationships with Furbys in fan fictions highlights a disconnection between the Furby characters as marketed by Hasbro, and what they become after entering the lives of their caregivers. Despite being sold as friendly and in need of care, Furbys often conjure monstrous and gothic associations that can be read as symptomatic of real anxieties surrounding technological innovation. Building on this preliminary analysis, eighteen still and moving image scenarios were designed to elicit stories, and sixty-four online responses were received. Analysis of these responses found that overwhelmingly fantasy-driven storytelling was used to explore the role of Furbys in the visual scenarios, and they were often written as biologically alive and equal to humans. Combined, my fan fiction and response analyses highlight the interplay between observational and imaginative storytelling to articulate the boundaries around human and nonhuman relationships. My thesis therefore suggests that design and marketing cannot set the boundaries of electronic companionship because they will always be redefined by the users, and designers could benefit from exploring the use of their designs once out in the world. My PhD research project offers: 1) a theoretical contribution by positing fantastic storytelling as a space for critical reflection and engagement with material objects, where the potential of electronic companionship can be explored beyond the imperatives of design and marketing; 2) an empirical case study of Furby fan fiction that expands the understanding of fan fiction to include consumer objects as source material for textual production; 3) a methodological contribution to interdisciplinary studies by combining narrative studies and design to explore our relationships with emerging technology, and 4) a design research contribution that explores user stories to support meaning making practices of storytelling about electronic companionship, and equally value the place of the nonhuman in design issues.</p>

IRONY IN FAN FICTION

Irony is a broad concept with many cultural and artistic manifestations of criticism, sarcasm, humor, parody, and even tragedy. It can represent various intellectual and emotional states, such as criticism, self-criticism, curiosity, entertainment, disappointment, anger, boasting, etc. The tone, intensity and frequency of sound are sufficient to convey irony in speech. However, in writing authors use a number of linguistic and stylistic means to be able to convey irony to the reader. This also refers to fanfic (fan fiction) – a work of art/fiction written by book fans, TV series, films, etc. – which is based on an original creation and uses irony widely. The language we perceive when reading fan fiction influences our language and our own production of speech. Hence, the present case study aims at revealing ways and means as well as reasons of expressing irony in fan fiction – a discourse variety that has attracted great interest in the modern world especially among the younger generation.

Virtual Reality Life Writing and Young Adult Media Practice

This article investigates the impact of digital technologies on the production of life writing texts and media for and by young adults. Five categories in total are examined: (i) Fan Fiction, (ii) life simulator games, (iii) SNS (social networking sites), (iv) VR (virtual reality) documentaries and (v) Webtoons. The article begins by synthesising numerous critical studies on children’s and digital life writing, before analysing two IVR (immersive virtual reality) documentaries in depth. It concludes by discussing the relationship between these on-the-go, online and immersive VR modes and fantasised futures, narratives of extremity and the slice of life genre.

Transhumanism, Utopia, and the Problem of the Real in Ready Player One

Ann Taves’s argument about “special things” permits religion scholars to analyze secular texts fruitfully. Notably, Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One speculates about humanity’s possible future and how technological advancement could reshape it. Although the narrative assumes an atheistic stance, its central, conceptual tensions are categorically religious. Cline’s imagined cyberworld sensorily immerses users into an alternative kind of space and allows them to inhabit bodies of their own choosing; this represents a kind of transhumanist, utopian impulse similar to shamanism. However, Ready Player One problematizes this created world ontologically and questions whether relationships formed in such a place can be authentically meaningful. Contrasting the book, the film adaptation, and fan fiction illustrates the controversial stakes at play.

FEMSLASH FANFICTION AND LESBIANISM: EFFORTS TO EMPOWER AND EXPRESS ASIAN AMERICAN WOMAN SEXUALITY

The existence of fan fiction nowadays shows more progressive development especially in this digital era when people does not only use internet for communicating and socializing across time and space but they also show their creativity, one of them is by writing a fan fiction. By writing fan fiction in online platforms, people get the opportunity to express their interests and their identities. This opportunity is also obtained by minority groups such as LGBTQ+ where they can express their identity through fan fiction. LGBTQ+ community utilizes online platform as the tool that brings benefit for them. In this case, writing fan fiction in online platforms allows people to create the preferable representation of minority groups and empower them as the part of LGBTQ+ community. This phenomenon can be seen through a website named Asianfanfics.com which shows an increasing number of fan fictions especially the ones with lesbian related tags such as girl x girl, lesbian, and femslash. Particularly, through the femslash subgenre, people use fan fiction to question the heteronormativity. Regarding to this phenomenon, an interview was conducted by choosing three Asian American fan fiction writers from Asianfanfics.com as the interviewees. Furthermore, by using gender theory and intersectionality, this article focuses on how fan fiction becomes a safe space to express their sexual identities and how lesbian relationship is viewed by Asian families.