The mainstreaming of geek culture means the arts are now targeting the disposable income of a once-derided demographic.
Once upon a time, nerds were uncool. Memorising lines of dialogue from The Lord of the Rings, playing Dungeons & Dragons, publically expressing your love for Doctor Who; these were activities that resulted in ostracism and ridicule.
Somewhere in the past 30 years, all that changed, thanks in part to the internet making once obscure information freely available. Now, our elite orchestras perform the soundtracks of The Lord of the Rings films to full houses; Vivid Sydney attracts massive crowds with its Doctor Who projections; and theatre productions about nerds’ battles with bullies and self-doubt receive critical acclaim and multiple Helpmann Award nominations.
Put simply, the geeks have inherited the earth. But how has such a massive shift come about, and what can arts organisations do to get their share of the nerd market?
The ubiquity of the internet aside, the multi-million dollar success of Hollywood superhero movies such as Paramount’s Iron Man franchise and Warner Brothers’ Batman films, as well as New Line Cinema’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, have played a key role in the mainstreaming of geek culture, according to film critic, Ph.D student, and Bookslut comic book columnist Martyn Peddler.
‘Coming from a mostly comic book point of view, it’s been pretty amazing to see comic book superheroes become the cultural behemoth that they are now. They’ve sort of replaced sci-fi films as the tentpole, special-effects-filled event movies,’ Peddler says.
In theatre too, the lines have blurred.
‘It seemed that one always used to be exclusive from the other; that’s how I always felt. You were either a geek, or you could be a theatre geek, something different,’ says Canadian writer/performer Charles Ross, currently touring Australia with his critically acclaimed One Man Star Wars and One Man Lord of the Rings shows.
As to why geek culture has become such a dominant creative force today, Ross has his own theory.
‘We keep revamping old stories rather than making new ones; that’s sort of why the geek line has been blurred, because the geeks from 30 years ago who first loved Star Wars and collected all these toys are now potentially in their 60s or later, and these are the people that you’re trying to bring in to the theatre. We always joke that certain theatres pander to the blue-hairs; well, the geeks are bordering on blue hair right now.’
Here in Australia it’s a younger generation of geeks who are making their creative mark – as theatre-makers rather than audience members. Among them is actor and playwright Matthew Whittet, the writer of Windmill Theatre’s critically acclaimed School Dance, the story of three quasi-invisible, awkward geeks with raging hormones who go to their school social looking for love and adventure.
‘I wanted to stay true to my experience of what it was to be a teenager and an outsider, and to re-examine all the things I was saturated in, in the Eighties and Nineties – American culture basically – and just kind of see what came out,’ Whittet says of the play, which has resonated strongly with audiences of all ages.
‘I’m a child of the Eighties I guess, the tail end – I’m 37 – and the other guys were as well, so it seemed to us that those symbols of the things we were playing with – Mogwais and unicorns and My Little Ponies – all that stuff held so much epic symbolism for us.’
As the success of the recent Oz Comic-Con indicates, geeks and nerds represent a large and growing audience – and importantly for arts organisations, an audience who are happy to spend money on the things they love, whether that be Doctor Who action figures or theatre tickets.‘Nerds do have a fair bit of disposable cash they’re willing to spend on things,’ Martyn Peddler notes, laughing.
‘I guess it used to be that we were so desperate – I’m using the ‘we’ to include myself in this category now – for nerd or geek based entertainment, you’d kind of throw money at anything that had a token amount of nerd-friendly material in it. But now there’s so much in popular culture. I guess the only danger would be to seem like you were doing it really half-arsed,’ he says.
This year’s Oz Comic-Con, held in Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne (and expanding to include Sydney and Brisbane in 2014) attracted a total audience of 85,000 people – the majority of them dedicated fans who are happy to support the programs and projects they love.
‘Typically, you don’t find anyone more devoted, more loving or more supportive of a franchise than people who are passionate about it – geeks, if you will,’ says Carissa Avenhouse, of Oz Comic-Con organisers DCA Enterprises.
‘And geeks to do not fall into the category of the sweaty 35 year old virgin who lives in mummy and daddy’s basement surrounded by his toys. It’s an industry now that’s dominated very much by women, especially aged 15 to 45, and it’s not so much that they have a high disposable income as that they’re supporting their passion and their hobby.
‘Someone who collects cars, someone who plays golf, someone who goes to the pub and spend $300 a week on the pokies and beers – that’s what they choose to spend their money on, whereas these people choose to spend it on memorabilia and experiences that enrich their lives and which they can take pleasure from. And if you do it half-hearted, they know it and they won’t come back, but if you really put the effort in, well, nobody does social media like the geeks,’ she says.
She also stresses that geeks and nerds are interested in all aspect of a show – something for arts organisations’ marketing departments to remember.
‘People who love Doctor Who or Star Wars or anything where there is art design for the production, where there is costuming, where there are amazing soundtracks; they’re interested in every single aspect of the production, not just the TV show or the movie itself – they care about every single part of it.’
Andrew Pogson, Assistant Artistic Administrator at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) coordinates the company’s special programs, including 2012’s Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular, a collaboration with BBC Worldwide; Video Games Unplugged, a bespoke concert of scores from top games including Final Fantasy and Bioshock 2; and – this weekend – The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, a live concert of Howard Shore’s music accompanying a screening of Peter Jackson’s film.
‘The cool part with all of these programs is that we are really able to reach a new audience – an audience that is incredibly passionate, not just about the subject matter … but really passionate about the soundtracks of those games or those movies as well; and they’re just as knowledgeable about that content as the most hardcore classical subscriber, it’s just that they know a different genre,’ Pogson says.
Avenhouse says that such concert performances of music from video games, Doctor Who and The Lord of the Rings that Pogson has helped coordinate are just the tip of the iceberg for arts organisations seeking to capture a slice of the geek audience – but she also urges caution. ‘People sometimes seem to think that you can just throw anything together [for the geek audience] and that will be appreciated. That’s not the case. They’re very used to being patronised, and they don’t appreciate it.’
Pogson agrees: ‘This audience – being the nerd, geek, gamer, movie buff audience – they know their franchises, their content, inside out; more so than anyone else, and it would be a really huge mistake for any arts organisation to present something to that fan base that isn’t authentic, and that isn’t true to the original or that isn’t a reimagining that hasn’t been in collaboration with the original composers or studio,’ he says.
‘The fan base can smell when something’s not authentic, when people don’t know what they’re talking about; and likewise, like any fans – and like any audience members – they deserve a world-class audience experience. It doesn’t matter if it’s a classical concert or a gaming concert – the same amount of care is put into it.’
Matthew Whittet also cautions arts organisations seeking to tap into the nerd dollar, stressing that they should do so ‘with compassion’.
‘I kind of believe that if you’re going to laugh at someone, it’s laughing through a deep understanding; I don’t think it’s laughing through pointing out how someone is wrong. That’s been my rule of thumb, with these shows particularly,’ he says.
‘It is tricky, because if you are dealing with outsiders … they have a very sharp radar for if you’re making fun of them. And I think as long as they don’t feel like they’re being made fun of – that you’re laughing at yourself as much as you’re laughing at the characters – then I think you’re ok.’
MSO presents The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Hamer Hall, Melbourne
12 – 13 July
One Man Star Wars Trilogy
Sydney Opera House
17 – 21 July
School Dance
Brisbane Powerhouse
31 July – 3 August
