Steampunk Convention...and comments about Furry

[kuddlepup]

Had a blast yesterday at a new Steampunk event in Daytona.  I put together a little outfit with some things that I already had...nothing elaborate, and certainly not anything expensive...created a character that was, for lack of a better idea, a dirigible attendant.  White shirt, black vest with my silver pocketwatch, khaki slacks, and black shoes

Comments

[twigmouse]

When I first started going to cons, I did it specifically to meet like-minded people. Back in 2000-2001, this was much easier for me as the fandom was much smaller and a larger segment of it seemed to be composed of people who were interested, to some extent, in the more spiritual side. I met plenty of people in the first few years, but after about 2003-2004, the size of conventions just exploded. The flood of new people in the fandom seemed to contain a much smaller portion of people who shared my interests, and the dynamic of conventions changed for me. These days, when I do make it to a con, I end up hanging out with friends pretty much exclusively. New people I meet are introduced to me or are attending the room parties I go to (room parties hosted or attended by people I already know). I find it difficult to find common interests with the majority of convention attendees these days. I enjoy the art, I very much enjoy performance, and I love fursuits. I'm not an artist, and it seems that suiting has become less about performing and craftsmanship these days.

At a given moment in the convention space of a furry convention, you'll find several fursuits meandering around aimlessly, some with heads off chatting, and there may be 2-3 people actually putting effort into their performance. Sadly, the "audience" they're performing too has become so over-stimulated with fursuits that little attention/appreciation/participation is given. The remainder of the occupants of the con space will be artists doodling and friends chatting. There's nothing wrong with that, but I don't have much to talk about that would be of interest to an artist, and I'm not a member of the groups of friends chatting about eachother, so I have nothing to contribute there either.

My recent experience is that if I pick a random person at a furry convention to chat with, I quickly find that we have very little to talk about beyond stating our species. Other than having some level of interest in anthropomorphic arts, there isn't really a specific theme that attracts people to the fandom. The attraction is so non-specific that a furry convention seems slightly less random than picking random people at JCPenny to talk to. Chances are you don't have much in common with them other than that you both shop at JCPenny.

In contrast, people at sci-fi conventions are more likely to be technically minded, so aside from chatting about "that episode where Worf has his spinal cord replaced using a transporter", you'd have a good chance that there is also some common interest in computers, electronics, science, astronomy, etc.

Burning Man would be filled with artists and "free thinkers". Hot August Nights is full of hot rod enthusiasts. Bike Week attracts fans of motorcycles. Maker fair attracts tinkerers and inventors. Steampunk conventions attract lovers of superscience.

Furry conventions attract: fursuiters, artists, comic fans, puppeteers, animation fans/creators, sci-fi fans/writers, therians, ABDL, zoophiles, plushophiles, body modification people, the cast of Broadway's "CATS"... the list goes on.

What I've described above is an indication of why I tend to just hang out with friends at cons. I don't consider myself to be socially awkward. Some of my friends are surprised at how easily I can meet and get along with other people. I'd prefer to forego the conventions all together and simply travel to visit my friends. When that's not feasable due to the large number of friends and the long distances invloved, conventions are a convenient opportunity to catch up with people I know well but don't see often. I don't see anything wrong with that.