Materiality Ideas - Cosplay

Considering some of the things we've discussed in class this week just gone about the definition of materiality in the course, I've been looking into ideas of how I can incorporate the idea of cosplay as an art form into the work.

When we think about cosplay, as I've mentioned in previous posts and can expand upon here in a way, one of the best places to find cosplayers strutting their stuff is at conventions; when they're in character, they are considered to be doing live performances. They can be show-cased in cosplay competitions, where they can perform short skits that introduce their characters, and then have short interviews with the MC about how they made their outfit, etc - or they can be seen just wandering around the convention itself; sometimes in character, sometimes not.

For instance (as promised two or three posts ago), here's a couple of photo's I've taken, completely unprofessionally, of cosplayers wandering around the popular WaiCon here in Perth over the last couple of years.

Here's the photo of the Final Fantasy cosplayer I had the pleasure of meeting showing off her fourteen-foot wingspan - that's all card, wood and spay paint. She's not just wearing that huge contraption on her back, she's also covered in blue body paint from the waist up.

This guy is a friend of a friend of mine - he can speak clearly through the mess face mask beneath that face full of hair, but instead he went lumbering around the convention floor growling and grunting just like Chewbacca. Admittedly his outfit isn't an exact replica, but he's recognizable enough.

Solid Snake - someone I actually had to tap on the shoulder and return his eye-patch to because it had fallen off when he hadn't been wearing it; consequently, I asked for his photo and he struck an appropriate pose.

What I'm trying to say is, cosplayers don't always need massive audiences and a stage for put on a performance, especially if they're wandering around a convention. Anywhere is a stage in their eyes, if someone asks for a photo.
However, that's not to say that having a massive audience and a stage etc etc for them to flounce around on isn't also great...
Wai-Con 2013 Saturday Cosplay
Here is a link to the first day of the Wai-Con cosplay competition from last year's Wai-Con weekend; once again, some people are in character with their cosplays, and others aren't. Most however perform the aforementioned short skits to give the audience a feel for their characters if the source (in this case, anime/manga) that the character they're cosplaying is from. Forgive the length of the video, it's really just to give you a taste of what the competitions can be like. (Also on that note, though it's necessary information but it is somewhat related - the competition was judged by three individuals; one of which that has never watched anime before, judging on what he sees performed on stage. Another judge who is a old hand at cosplaying, and another judge who was undefined on his perspective of anime, manga and cosplaying. This is somewhat related to the idea of cosplays as live performances seeing as the acts were judged on their capacity to impress the judges with their enactments of the characters.)

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On a note that sidles away from the convention aspects of live performance and amateur photography of cosplaying, we can see other aspects of the capturing of cosplay. Here we can look at a slightly more professional side of capturing cosplay; with set up photo shoots that can be done just be every day artists/cosplayers with friends helping them out with filming/the actual photo taking, could also be shot by actual photographers and photography enthusiasts. 

Here's some examples of cosplays that were intended do be done in actual photoshoots for publication on the internet (sites like Tumblr, DeviantART, Facebook, Twitter, Pixiv, etc) I'm using cosplays from various anime's because let's face it; anime/manga is one of the most abundant sub-cultures for cosplay, so these were really simple to find.

These are just a few cosplay's I've found on both dA and Tumblr - in order of appearance there's a Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) by Hajime Isayama alternate universe cosplay featuring the characters (from left to right) Erwin, Levi, and Hanji (or just Hanji's leg...); here they're showcasing the fact that the character of Levi is very short compared to the others, and often very dead-pan and cynical. His most notable line from the anime of Attack on Titan is "Look at all these big-ass trees". Here the quote has been changed but is sufficiently similar that fans of the show will still understand it - the line is now "Look at these big-ass freaks". The outfits are based on ideas the cosplayers had of an AU (alternate universe) setting where the characters' wore different uniforms and were set in a different time period - in this case, some may relate them to more of a Nazi Germany era of setting (even though the cosplayer who posted these photos mindxcrash (cosplayer of the short-ass Levi) has explicitly said there is no connection.

Next up is a cosplayer portraying the main character from the manga/anime series Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) by Yana Toboso. The character, Ciel Phantomhive, is shown here in one of the many outfits designed for his character in the manga, which features various suits/outfits - more than the anime, probably because of animation budgets, etc. Here are a few more examples of some of Ciel's wardrobe;

Needless to say, cosplaying Ciel will always be a spectacle because it doesn't matter which outfit the cosplayer decides they want to make - it will always look like something fabulous just stepped out of the late Victorian era.

Next on the list is a couple of cosplayers showing off their outfits of Holo the Wise Wolf and Kraft Lawrence from the light novels (adapted to manga adapted to anime etc etc) Spice and Wolf by Isuna Hasekura. They portray the two characters in an environment that is not unlike the actual overall setting of the story - the characters are traveling partners in a medieval-style setting, so a worn path winding through a forest is idealistic to capture the feeling of the rustic traveling merchant and his mischievous, apple-munching companion, a wolf goddess of the harvest.

Last but not least is a Ghost in the Shell cosplay, feauturing three of the main characters from the anime series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (and subsequent season two, '2nd Gig' and third season 'Solid State Society') - Togusa, Motoko and Batou. All three cosplayers are embracing the characters just as much as the character embrace the character types they were created in; Togusa, the meek-looking but quick witted cop, Motoko Kusanagi, the bad-ass protagonist cyborg with a taste for leather and big guns, and Batou, the heavy-set ex-marine with a big mouth, big guns, and big heart. The setting they're in is also a good indicator of the genre the anime is from; gritty back streets, military weapons and cybernetic implants. Science fiction? Yes please.
Personally, I love seeing Ghost in the Shell cosplays - not only because Ghost in the Shell was the anime that really introduced me to the world of Japanese animation, but because it's sci-fi - and with sci-fi, cosplayers can do just about anything to augment the character and change them up to make them look even cooler than some of the original designs - not unsimilar to mindxcrash's Attack on Titan AU cosplay above.

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Okay - this post has gotten pretty long, but bear with me if you haven't already left. There's one more aspect that's very similar to the photoshoot/photography side of cosplay, and I have mentioned it albeit very breifly - filming.

Now, in my first post I left a link to the Assassin's Creed cosplay video done by devinsupertramp featuring parkour and free runner athlete Ronnie Shalvis. Here are a couple of other videos similar to that (yes, one or two of them will also be by devinsupertramp and some may be Assassin's Creed as well).

Number One: Assassin's Creed Meets Parkour - Assassin's Creed 4 

Featuring Chris Romwell, here's another parkour Assassin's Creed movie. Personally I think that if you can combine the cosplay with the parkour skills, there's no more extreme or better way to showcase both - as I've previously said, the sport is such a large aspect of the video game, that doing something like this can also be seen as another form of live performance - as you can see in the video, Chris is free running through crowds and busy streets - no street permits were used for secure locations, no one was made aware of what exactly was going on - they were, in a sense, a part of the performance; unknowing participants but in no way directly involved with either Chris or the cameraman Devin.

Number Two: His Butler Asks, 'Who's Your Butler?'

Here we've got a form of parody cosplay - everyone know of the Old Spice commercials? The cosplayers of the YouTube channel PhantomhiveService (Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler cosplayers), created this for entertainment of those on the internet; there's no outside participation by anyone, and it's filmed and dubbed over in a controlled environment/location that has been chosen because of the relevance to the subject matter. (Black Butler is set in the late 1800's, therefore the creators of the film, ((I know them as Lala, Hannah and Derek, who played the butler, Sebastian, the redhead, Grell, and is the voice of Sebastian in the dub of the video respectively)) were looking to feature a location that looked the architectural part).

These two are good examples of live/recorded performances for internet usage, most notably on YouTube (where I found them). I'll leave these two here and won't add anymore a) because they're both displaying different aspects of the cosplay performances in different ways and b) this post is already far too long. 

Anyway - I'll probably post some more before Wednesday, but until then, that's all, folks.

~S