One of the great things about Politics of Patents is our multidisciplinary team, as each member of POP holds a unique perspective which allows us to consider our research in a variety of ways.
As the latest member to join POP, acting as a postdoctoral research fellow, I bring to it my background in sociology and social research. I’m particularly excited to use my expertise in qualitative methods to uncover the stories behind patents and use them as artifacts to explore the lived experiences of those who invented and wore these innovative garments.
I’m joining POP from the Royal College of Music (RCM) where I conducted research exploring how the arts can support mental wellbeing and build feelings of social connectedness. Just like the research we are currently undertaking during WP2, where we meticulously comb databases and newspapers archives to unearth the untold stories behind the patents, my previous projects include the synthesis of data from multiple studies to reach new conclusions.
I’m excited to use my expertise in qualitative methods to uncover the stories behind patents and use them as artifacts to explore the lived experiences of those who invented and wore these innovative garments.
During my time at the RCM I also undertook a range of interactive engagement events featuring music and visual art installations to present our research in interesting ways.
As the POP Projects continues, we have a number of great events lined up and I’m looking forward to showcasing how our work at the POP lab allows us to gain a better understanding of the social world of both the past and the present.
Alongside the research I have undertaken at the RCM, within my own personal projects I have used garments as a tool to explore how individuals understand their society. This is an area with fascinates me as clothing is a particularly effective way of conveying aspects of a person’s individual or group identity and can be used to visually display an adherence to or resistance against societal norms (Hebdige, 1979).
In my PhD research on the cosplaying subculture I explore clothing’s capacity to reinforce or subvert social norms.
I explore clothing’s capacity to reinforce or subvert social norms within my PhD research on the cosplaying subculture, whose members emulate characters from geek media using intricate and often striking costumes.
Within my research I became a cosplayer myself, which allowed me to interact with hundreds of members of this subculture and hear what the activity meant to cosplayers through their own accounts. As part of my research, I made and wore cosplay’s subcultural dress so I’m super excited to get started on the speculative sewing we will be undertaking within WP3!
An example of me cosplaying at a geek culture convention. I’m dressed as an anthropomorphic version of the character Judy Hopps from the Disney Film Zootopia. Wigs, coloured contact lenses, props and makeup are all used in cosplay to give an accurate rendition of a character.
Cosplayers put in a lot of time, effort and often money to accurately look like the character they are emulating.
Some cosplayers were found to wear the costumes of characters who were very different from them personality wise, and many of these cosplayers presented wearing these outfits as a way of subverting their everyday identity and experimenting with their idea of ‘self’. Other cosplayers dressed up as characters with similar personal traits and used their costumes to non-verbally convey aspects of their identity. Some introverted cosplayers even discussed dressing up as shy characters to encourage more outgoing cosplayers to approach them!
Not all cosplayers however chose the outfits that they wore. Some cosplayer’s emulations were decided on by their friends and as a result they could be typecast as certain kinds of characters based on how they were perceived by others. Therefore, just as we explore within POP, this highlights that clothing can be a powerful tool for reinforcing or disrupting our existing beliefs about ourselves or others!
Cosplay is a social activity that many cosplayers do as a part of a group. Here me and another cosplayer are emulating Callie and Marie, Squid pop idols from the videogame Splatoon. We decided who would cosplay which character based on a similarity in personality traits.
Within the cosplaying subculture gender fluidity was also found to be normalised. In fact, the act of emulating characters of different genders is so common in cosplay that it has its own specific term ‘crossplay’.
A male cosplayer ‘crossplaying’ Kotori, a female character from the multimedia franchise Love Live! (Image consent provided for use by author)
Cosplayers put in a lot of time, effort and often money to accurately look like the character they are emulating.
Just like many of the patents that we have unearthed during POP which are designed to shape and contort bodies, many cosplayers also constructed outfits with clever designs to alter their body shape when crossplaying.
Binding and padding are particularly effective at giving the illusion of muscles or curves and can allow the wearer to look and feel very different when they are incorporated into costumes.
Pat. US702158A Scott Charles’ 1902
“Combined bustle and hip form” gives the illustration of fuller hips.
Not only were costumes found to be used as a means of allowing experimentation with gendered identity, but some cosplayers also discussed that when they wore crossplays, they saw the act as a means of making an overt statement against societies misconceptions of sex and gender.
This finding particularly relates to the work we do within POP, by highlighting how clothing can be used as a tool to disrupt mainstream ideas on how certain bodies should look or behave.
…clothing can be used as a tool to disrupt mainstream ideas on how certain bodies should look or behave.
The costumes that cosplayers wore were also found to convey membership and status within the subculture. If a cosplayer wore a highly accurate costume, they could be expected to receive a great deal of interaction from other cosplayers which could broaden their social networks. On the other hand, cosplayers in less refined costumes were often assumed to be ‘newbies’.
As a result, these newbies could be approached by senior cosplayers and taught cosplay’s norms and values, therefore equipping them with the tools to become full members of the subculture. In contrast individuals who were perceived to be wearing fancy dress costumes were not viewed as part of the cosplaying subculture at all and were therefore much less likely to meet and talk with cosplayers.
Cosplay is more than just fancy dress- it conveys the wearer’s love for geek culture. Cosplayers put in a lot of time, effort and often money to accurately look like the character they are emulating.
Both the work we are undertaking in POP and my research on the cosplaying subculture really demonstrates that clothing isn’t just something you wear to protect you from the elements.
Clothing is a way of communicating who you are and what you stand for and can be used as a means of experimenting with aspects of your identity.
Plus, clothes are not only significant to the person wearing them. Clothing has wider social meanings which can help to determine whether you are viewed as a ‘member’, or ‘citizen’, of a particular community, subculture or society or not.
References:
Hebdige, D. 1979. Subculture: the meaning of style. London, Routledge.
Patents:
Pat. 702,158. Scott Charles, Chicago, USA, ‘Combined bustle and hip form’, 10 June 1902. Accessed from the EPO Espacenet www.epo.org
