The power of the imaginary

how pop culture images produce experience consumption at the Comic Con Experience

Abstract

The study is derived from the Comic Con Experience ethnography carried out by the author in his thesis. In it, he noted that this consumption occurred thanks to affective anteriority, as the greater it was, the more participants voluntarily suspended disbelief, the greater their immersion in the event and the more intense the enjoyment consumed. Affective anteriority was formed by knowledge of elements from pop culture narratives and by the affection nurtured by them before the event. As these elements consisted of images endowed with shared meanings, it is understood that the collective imagination plays a fundamental role in the consumption of the comic con experience. Given this observation, the article brings reflections on the importance of the collective imagination, revealing that, as a vector of communion, it concatenated the senses and affections, organizing the entire symbolic order of the event, pop culture, and establishing a relationship between it and visual culture.