Abstract K‑pop has recently emerged as a global cultural phenomenon, giving rise to fan-driven initiatives known as ‘fanscapes’ ( Kim, 2017 ). This study examines how fans, as active participants in the K‑pop fanscape, materialize visual resources to reinterpret and reframe artist identities. Through an analysis of fan-organized K‑pop cafés in Bangkok, it explores how visual objects mediate fans’ participatory image-making of K‑pop artists in public spaces through the framework of social semiotics ( Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996 ). The findings reveal that fans employ visual semiotics, particularly color, gaze, typography, and materialized recontextualization, to construct and negotiate artists’ identities. While fans reinforce company-defined representations of artists, they also resemiotize and challenge these identities through visual objects. This study highlights fans’ growing agency in meaning-making, during which visual objects transform cafés into temporary socio-spatial semiotic landscapes where fans collectively construct identity and engage in co-production, actively shaping K‑pop’s narratives.
Wu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.