Cosplay and the Art of Play Exploring Sub-Culture Through Art

This book is an introduction to cosplay as a subculture and community, built around playful spaces and the everyday practices of crafting costumes, identities, and performances. 

Drawing on new and original ethnographic data, as well as the innovative use of arts-led research, this book adds to our understanding of a popular, global cultural practice. In turn, this pushes forward our understanding of play, fan practices, subcultures, practice-led research, and uses of urban spaces. 

Cosplay and the Art of Play offers a significant addition to key contemporary debates on the meaning and uses of popular culture in the 21st century, and will be of importance to students and scholars interested in communities, fandom, identity, leisure, participatory cultures, performance, and play.

1. Introduction: What Is Cosplay?.- 2. Contextualising the Artwork.- 3. Cosplay and Art as Research Method.- 4. Cosplay as Subculture.- 5. Identity and Performance.- 6. Crafting Cosplay.- 7. Playful Cultures and the Appropriation of Urban Space.- 8. Conclusion: Decentring Cosplay.

Garry Crawford is Professor of Cultural Sociology at the University of Salford, UK.

David Hancock is Co-founder and Director of PAPER gallery, Lecturer of Visual Arts at the University of Salford, UK, and an internationally recognised artist.