My thesis
discusses how the Batsuit and its accessories and representations, articulate and inform not only the character
Batman, but an entire culture of creative and professional identities, across
Film Industry and Fandom, through processes of object manufacture, circulation
and collection. The importance of the suit to the characterization has not been
sufficiently explored, for arguably, without the Batsuit, there is no Batman. For
the character Batman to be deployed, a Batsuit must first be created. This
process happens narratively – within the fiction – and materially –in the
creation of the fiction. Historically, the Batsuit has always been created prior to the
narrative construction of character, and was originally based upon a sketch of a suit created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. The latest series of Batman films' were similarly based around Christopher Nolan's vision of the Tumbler vehicle, which was first designed to function as a metonymic symbol for his fresh approach to the characterisation. From
the early comic books to the current blockbuster movies, the material culture of the Batman has always been developed before a the character is symbolically
constructed in narrative.
Existing Batman scholarship does not give appropriate consideration to the material culture and instead discusses the distribution, reception or interpretation of the textual form, or issues surrounding the character and the narrative. Batman has been popularly analyzed using a semiotic approach. However, the problem with using a theory of representation to study Batman is that all perspectives can be argued as equally valid, given the appropriate context and interpretive audience. This form of analysis also ignores what I had previously observed as the fundamental importance of the Batsuit to the structure and maintenance of fan identity and fan cultures. My extended study began by researching the manufacture, circulation and collection of various forms of film and television memorabilia and with this information, addressing the denigration of consumption in fan studies. By engaging with private collectors, commercial circulators and domestic fabricators and also working regularly at UK fan contentions, I made a contemporary assessment of the ascription of collectable value and its relevance to the structure of fan cultures. I observed that fan cultures are structured around the manufacture, circulation and collection of objects. Predominantly, Fandom isn’t about the text - the narrative and its reception – it’s about ‘stuff’ and people’s relationship with it. Eventually my work became focused upon ‘Batman’ as an illustrative example of a fan culture, which is principally based around the manufacture, circulation and collection of the Batsuit, its accessories and representations.
Existing Batman scholarship does not give appropriate consideration to the material culture and instead discusses the distribution, reception or interpretation of the textual form, or issues surrounding the character and the narrative. Batman has been popularly analyzed using a semiotic approach. However, the problem with using a theory of representation to study Batman is that all perspectives can be argued as equally valid, given the appropriate context and interpretive audience. This form of analysis also ignores what I had previously observed as the fundamental importance of the Batsuit to the structure and maintenance of fan identity and fan cultures. My extended study began by researching the manufacture, circulation and collection of various forms of film and television memorabilia and with this information, addressing the denigration of consumption in fan studies. By engaging with private collectors, commercial circulators and domestic fabricators and also working regularly at UK fan contentions, I made a contemporary assessment of the ascription of collectable value and its relevance to the structure of fan cultures. I observed that fan cultures are structured around the manufacture, circulation and collection of objects. Predominantly, Fandom isn’t about the text - the narrative and its reception – it’s about ‘stuff’ and people’s relationship with it. Eventually my work became focused upon ‘Batman’ as an illustrative example of a fan culture, which is principally based around the manufacture, circulation and collection of the Batsuit, its accessories and representations.
As my
study evolved, my research has led me into the Film Industry to meet those
involved with the manufacture of the suits and accessories, and investigate to what extent the Batman character is structured around the design, manufacture, use and critical and cultural reception of the suit. My approach developed
from what began as simply ‘an opportunistic methodology’ to what Caldwell terms
‘an integrated cultural-industrial method of analysis’. This ‘synthetic
approach’ utilises data from different modes of analysis, principally material
culture studies and textual analysis, and incorporates interviews with
manufacturers, circulators and collectors of the Batsuit and its accessories,
from different positions in Industrial Art Departments, high street marketing
and fan culture. These individual research modes are kept ‘in check’ through
the different chapters by placing discourses, discussions and interviews in
dialogue with the others, whilst always returning the principal enquiries of
each chapter to the objective evidence of the material culture. ‘Unzipping the Batsuit’ reveals the
rich developmental history of Batman’s costume, car and gadgets, a fantastic
material culture that blurs the boundaries of fantasy and reality, creative
industry and commerce, critical analysis and fandom, and provides a fresh
perspective on the way that we examine the generation and maintenance of fan cultures.
