Destroy All Monsters: Developments in Fandom and Participatory Culture

Bird Library, 6th Floor

September 9, 2024 - January 23, 2025

Destroy All Monsters: Developments in Fandom and Participatory Culture explores how fans have changed radically over the past century from mere consumers of media to active participants in media creation. Following the emergence of science fiction as a literary genre, fans increasingly sought to connect, not only with texts, but with each other. The founding of fan clubs, emergence of underground publications known as “fanzines,” and the rise of fan conventions within the science fiction community during the first half of the 20th century put fans in direct contact and created forums for discussion, debate, and camaraderie that spanned international borders. While the phrase may bring to mind violence for some, Destroy All Monsters seeks to portray not literal, but creative acts of destruction and reimagination.

The Special Collections Research Center’s exhibition, Destroy All Monsters: Developments in Fandom and Participatory Culture, highlights some of the ways in which fans engage with the object of their fandom by copying it, remixing it, or dismantling it altogether to make something new. While by no means a comprehensive history of fandom, the exhibition illustrates the legacy of fan participation, broadly, and recognize the contributions of the individual fan.

Curated by Daniel Sarmiento, Curator of 20th Century to Present, the exhibition will be on view at the Special Collections Research Center, Bird Library, 6th floor gallery during the Fall 2024 semester