By the end of this article, you will understand how a Green Bay Packers fan is as much like an Anime Cosplayer as they are like a rocket scientist. The preamble? I've finally started a Kickstart project, "Capturing the Ionosphere. (And yes, please pass that link around, I'd like for it to get funded).

This being a game column, I'll note that-- if 'CtI' reaches a specific funding level-- I will be releasing a new space age card game associated with it. But "Capturing the Ionosphere" is, at its core, a music project. To launch it, I had to categorize 'converting the ionosphere to music, over a 6-12 week period, to transmit to Earth so musicians can remix it.' Was this 'world music'? 'Electronic music'? I finally settled on 'Performance Art' because of the short lifetime and genuinely uncategorizable nature of the work.

We've argued whether RPGs are game, theater, or both. Do RPG sessions count as performance art? Well, no. That's an easy one. RPGs are not for the audience, and the entertainment experience is purely internal or shared by the participants. However, would a live action RPG (LARP) run count as performance art?

At first, it might look the same as a tabletop, except LARP has more theater-like aspects. Capital among these is that you actually act out or perform your role, for the other players to interpret. There is no underlying narration of actions or description of intent. In tabletop, you might say "I want to kill the kobold, so I use my +5 Str plus my rage bonus". In LARP, you have to convey rage, and the stats are generally abstracted to make for a speedy, visual, and/or hands-free resolution.

I would argue that a LARP performance is still internal, intended for the player/actor more than an audience. Even though the player has to convey their acts and emotions to other players, the goal is not to impress the other players so much as it is to fulfil your own personal goal and intent.

Branching from this, is cosplay performance art, or for internal use only? This Io9 article discusses why cosplay seems to follow in geek channels rather than, say, Shakespeare cosplay. Moreso than LARP, I argue that cosplay does qualify as performance art. Like LARP, cosplay is often done to interact with a group of peers. However, the participants are doing it specifically for the attention of an audience. Some will reenact scenes or hold poses enitrely for passerbys to enjoy and photograph.

But don't think 'performance art' is restricted only to the art crowd or geeks. I think it's much more prevalent than one might guess. I would argue that sports fan do cosplay.

They buy the jerseys and gear to brand themselves like their favorite players, extreme fans paint themselves to further identify with the team, they run fantasy leagues to re-create the game experience with themselves in a starring role (as team owner/coach), and they do this to better interact with other sport cosplayers in frequent scheduled gatherings. They don't even have the justification of an RPGer or LARPer in declaring it's all about winning a game, since their cosplay has no effect on the game. It's a free expression of their love of the sport done through mimicry and recreation.

So, Cheeseheads as cosplay and performance art? I say yes.

Until next month,
Sandy
sandy at rpg.net