ABSTRACT

Whether exploring how gender- or racebending characters in fan art might function as a form of representational critique, or why predominantly straight women enjoy composing homoerotic fiction featuring male characters, identity has frequently been at the heart of scholarly discussions of fans’ transformative works. Fan vidding, or the art of using “music in order to comment on or analyze a set of preexisting visuals, to stage a reading, or occasionally to use the footage to tell new stories” (Coppa, 2008), has a long history dating back to Kandy Fong’s projected slideshows at fan conventions in 1975. More than any other form of fan production, vidding has been shaped by technological shifts, from the development of vidding form and communities alongside the VCR in the 1980s, to the contemporary boom in the form fostered by accessible video editing software and streaming platforms. Despite this shift in the visibility and variety of contemporary fan vids, at their core they remain an important space of media production for marginalized voices and representations.