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Vividcon

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Vividcon is a multi-fandom vidding convention. It is held annually in Chicago, Illinois in August, and focuses on meta and technical discussion of vidding in primarily the media fandom community. The convention has three programming tracks running throughout the weekend: a panel discussion track, a vid viewing track, and a con suite for informal vid-watching and mingling with fans. Friday night also features "Club Vivid", a dance party with vids playing.

Vividcon
Convention logo
Status active
Genre media fandom
Location Chicago, Illinois, United States
Sponsor Vividcon
First held 2002
Official website


Contents

[edit] History

Vividcon was founded by astolat.[1] The first Vividcon was held in August 2002, to be the first media fandom convention focused solely on vidding: watching them, making them, and critiquing them. According to flummery, "The original organization name was indeed "Vivid Constructed Realities"; when astolat turned it into a legal LLC (which I believe happened after the first con, when it was clear we'd do a second one), she changed the name for what I assume are legal reasons. But the whole thing was a play on VCR, because in 2002, that's how we distributed vids. That's why the con llama has a videotape under his paw, too." [2]

In 2009, there were some race related issues that took place at the convention. [3]

At 2009's Vividcon, there were people who were upset about the criticism that people were given at the convention. jagwriter78 characterized it on August 20, 2009 as follows:

I just want to quickly touch on your 1) about concrit. I am speaking just for myself here, so please don't take it as a general view or something. Criticism where you say "a, b, c didn't work for me because" are all valid comments and you should accept those. I love such comments as it makes me aware of other people's views about something. I love discussing different views as well. By seeing things from different viewpoints, you grow. However, the way I have experienced it is that lately, when criticism is voiced publically (and I do mean here on LJ), most of the time it isn't of that kind anymore. It's the hurtful kind that offers no concrit whatsoever but comes down to a "you are too stupid to vid, so just don't do it anymore". In the case of VVC, it seems to me that when you entered your vid, you automatically gave a blanket permission to be harassed and diminished if a person didn't like your vid without that person even offering any kind of concrit at all. Comments phrased like "I don't like your music choice, so your vid is total shit" is nothing but hurtful. I know everyone has a right to their own opinion, and I certainly respect that, but in the end it's the tone that makes the music.[4]

Others argued that the level of criticism had actually decreased through the years at the convention (and in the following on-line reviews) instead of increasing.[5]

For more information on the history of each year's convention, please see the following pages:

[edit] Impact on fandom

Vividcon's impact is largely on media fandom, particularly the metafandom community and vidders who are associated with it. Many of those individuals are highly involved in fandom on LiveJournal, although the roots of the community go much further back into media fandom. The vidding aesthetic promoted by much of the convention BNFs and programming panelists can be traced largely to the Chicago Loop and West Coast vidding groups who frequently participated in and organized vidshows at slash conventions such as Escapade and Zebracon. Some vidders outside of these groups or who had not been "mentored" by members of them have felt alienated at the convention in the past, for being referred to as "feral vidders" or having their work harshly critiqued for not fitting in to the promoted styles of vidding promoted by the organizers of the convention. After the first Vividcon in 2002, sidewinder commented on this impression, stating:

I don't know quite how to put this...many vidders in attendance at the con still came from large vidding/mentoring groups, whereas some of us floating around the edges have basically taught ourselves, or were what I even heard referred to as "feral vidders"--people who got into it on their own without even knowing there was this big background of vidding going on for years within fandom at large. Me, I saw vids at a con once, fell in love with the idea, but had no one I knew I could go to in order to find out how to make my own. I learned by trial and error, by watching tapes and trying to absorb why I liked certain things and not others. My aesthetics and methods are my own, shaped to *some* degree by discussions I have read on lists like vidder that have made me think about things I might not have otherwise considered consciously about the vidding process. But I did not come up through a mentoring relationship with an established vidder, nor do I have any collaborators or the like. Which is all a round about way of thinking, after the fact, why I felt most comfortable just sitting in the back, watching and absorbing, not really a part of some of the other obvious networks of folks and long-time groups that I mostly only knew passingly.[6]

This divide between "newbie"/"feral" vidders and those well-established within the community appears to continue through the convention's history (and its impact throughout fandom), even as some point out that mentoring no longer actively takes place in vidding. After the 2009 Vividcon there was a long discussion on-line about what group of vidders Vividcon does and does not represent, as well as arguments over whether there are actually were other groups of vidders besides those active in media fandom and whether AMVs and YouTube videos were "the same thing" as the kind of vidding represented at Vividcon.[7] supacat stated:

I agree that there are many different types of vids (as there should be!) but I think the rest of the point was coloured by LJ vid community glasses. It's cool that you articulated your position, but I think I should articulate:
from an AMV perspective, for instance, most live action vids are insufficiently spectacular; from a media fannish perspective, many amvs have insufficient story/argument.
Conflating LJ perspective with 'media fannish perspective' is problematic considering
1) LJ is a small part of fandom, LJ =/= fandom, in fact LJ vids are numerically in the minority of 'media fannish' vids which are far more abundant on YouTube and in non LJ forums
2) AMV vids are also media fannish vids; just because you are not in the fandoms doesn't mean they don't exist
3) of all the vid 'communities' I watch vids in, LJ derides fannishness in vids more than any other, only certain prescribed forms of fannishness are allowed, with 'Thou Shalt Nots' posted at every door: Thou Shalt Not vid Celine Dion to a schmoopy ship vid - though what is choosing a Celine Dion + schmoopy ship vid if not a pure expression of fannishness? These pulpit speeches proclaiming of What Vids Should Be don't exist on AMV or YouTube, which have a much more free approach 'vid and post whatever you're into, if people like it, they'll watch it'.[8]

[edit] Panels

Panels at Vividcon focus on numerous topics, including history of vidding, technical and creative issues of vidding, as well as meta discussion of finished vids.

Please see pages for each year's convention for complete panel listings.

[edit] Vidshows

Along with panels, scheduled vidshows are one of the main features of the convention. Organizers by "VJs", there is a changing list of themed vidshows each year, along with the following standard vidshows which take place annually:

  • Premieres: vids which are completely new for the convention (annual show since 2002)
  • Nearly New: vids which premiered online or at other cons within the past year (introduced in 2003)
  • Challenge: a double-blind anonymous show based around a single theme (introduced in 2003)
  • Club Vivid: a four-hour (originally three-hour) dance party (introduced in 2003)
  • Auction: vids created to raise funds for the con (introduced in 2004)
  • Also Premiering: premiering vids submitted by non-attending vidders (introduced in 2008)

Each year also features a combination vidshow/panel on the History of Vidding. The focus of this history show changes each year based on what the moderator wishes to focus on and has so far covered:

  • Retrospective (2002)
  • Retrospective (2003)
  • Wayback Machine (2004)
  • Wayback Machine (2005)
  • Wayback Machine (2006)
  • Geneaology of Vidding (2007)
  • History of Vids 1980-84 (2008)
  • History of Vids 1985-90 (2009)

Please see pages for each year's convention for complete vidshow listings.

[edit] Dealers

Vividcon does not have a dealers' room.

[edit] Fans attending

This section needs more information.

[edit] External Links

[edit] Convention reports

Please see individual years' pages for convention reports.

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

Below is a partial list of articles and academic sources to help you continue to learn about this community. This section needs more information.

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