ABSTRACT
The engagement of re-enactors, steampunks and cosplayers in the cultural moments of their own creation, in moments of negotiated authenticity and shared meaning with varying degrees of accessibility to those ‘outside’ their communities, is a phenomenon that challenges conventional representational theory. Communities that construct an inter-subjective meaning and a negotiated sense of a shared ‘life’, through performance and embodiment, challenge museology’s and tourism’s notion of authenticity. If the definition of a tourist is someone who travels for pleasure, then these emergent identities, these complex ‘costumed communities’ creating their own cultural moment of suspended belief and performative authenticity, are the ultimate tourists. The coming together of individuals to re-enact, revision and re-imagine shared heritages is being responded to by museums, and their impact on museums and collections, and on heritage tourism, is significant.
