{"id":489373,"date":"2025-11-21T07:30:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T07:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studyinternational.com\/?p=489373"},"modified":"2025-11-21T07:30:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T07:30:32","slug":"leveraging-love-of-fandoms-in-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studyinternational.com\/news\/leveraging-love-of-fandoms-in-career\/","title":{"rendered":"How this Malaysian graduate leverages fandom in her work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Creatrix Tiara<\/a> is the kind of person who turns a joke into an opportunity. They refer to it as \u201cjokefesting\u201d\u2014 manifesting something silly into something very real.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All their pursuits fall under the category of \u201cshenanigans.\u201d They\u2019re whimsy, energetic, spontaneous. They\u2019re a performer, writer, and producer from Johor Bahru, Malaysia, now living in Melbourne, Australia, having studied abroad in Brisbane.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To this day, Creatrix remains a certified Savage Garden fangirl, an Australian pop duo based in Brisbane, and the main reason they would choose the city as their eventual study abroad location. They would even spend their days writing fan fiction for the fandom <\/span>\u2014 though, Creatrix had spent most of their days just writing, since young.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They were also\u00a0a lover\u00a0of radio and television. Johor Bahru sits on the border of Singapore, so they would have access to old Singaporean radio stations. They would grow up watching MTV and\u00a0Channel [V], and\u00a0even got to call in on the show\u00a0\u201cBy Demand,\u201d a music video request\u00a0programme.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou see people live streaming on Twitch, on YouTube. It was\u00a0almost a\u00a0precursor to that, just on television,\u201d says Creatrix.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI said, \u2018I would like to request [Savage Garden], I\u2019m having a bad day.\u2019 They called me on the show, and I fell in love.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Anything they fell in love with back then, they would make a website for. \u201cI was\u00a0very online\u00a0since I was\u00a09,\u201d they added. \u201cWhen the Internet first came to Malaysia, I was there \u2014 I left for one year to do UPSR \u2014 then I just never left again.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"love

People seek a platform in which they can express what they love, and that\u2019s what Creatrix aims to build today. Source: Creatrix Tiara<\/p><\/div>\n

Creatrix fell into an age they coined as the \u201cearly 2000s teen girl Internet,\u201d where many in their demographic would express their passions through developing basic websites. Before blogs were a thing, people had online diaries and fan sites, the platform in which Creatrix would share their Savage Garden fan fiction.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After moving to Australia and earning a Bachelor of Creative Industries from the Queensland University of Technology, much of Creatrix\u2019s career began on-stage. Their work as a director, producer, writer, and multimedia artist were driven by their identity: the\u00a0<\/span>Queer Lady Magician<\/span><\/a>, a queer, non-colonial take on stage magic; burlesque dancing; Yoni Ki Baat, a South Asian women\u2019s theatre production \u2014 you name it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But lately, the scene\u2019s changed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSomething I just found really\u00a0frustrating about\u00a0the live performance art was that a lot of them are just very\u00a0tech phobic.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0like, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s online, it\u2019s not people on a stage, bodies in a space, therefore it doesn\u2019t matter as much,\u2019\u201d they said. \u201cThen we had the lockdown \u2014 Victoria had the longest\u00a0lockdowns of\u00a0anywhere in the world. And so, a lot of people who still wanted to make theatre<\/span>\u00a0had to learn<\/span><\/i>\u00a0how to get online quickly.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, Creatrix\u2019s career has shifted from on-stage performance to forming \u201chybrid worlds\u201d that connect communities through physical and digital means. They just\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0realise\u00a0how much of an influence their teenage loves would offer through the process.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"love

Creatrix giving a handshake to Mr. Monopoly at a Monopoly Dreams interactive space in Melbourne Central. Source: Creatrix Tiara<\/p><\/div>\n

Turning fandoms into a rapt audience<\/h2>\n

Creatrix\u2019s most recent \u201cshenanigan\u201d is to produce a live stage adaptation of The Great Ace Attorney, an adventure game set in the Victorian era.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a tough process, getting it off the ground, especially when it comes to licensing. The game already has Japanese stage productions, but none in English.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s been years since Creatrix called into Channel [V] to request for Savage Garden, their fandom habits haven’t waned one bit. Creatrix is a connoisseur of both the performing arts and video games, and they\u2019ve found a way to merge the two worlds.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy main project during lockdown was a Fringe Festival on Animal Crossing,\u201d they said. \u201cAnd that was because I saw lots of people who used Animal Crossing: New Horizons as an event theme<\/span>. Someone did a whole talk show on\u00a0it,\u00a0people did fashion shows, and protest rallies. It was such a big avenue for creativity, and it really saved my life.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The festival took the shape of a 12-hour livestream where people would attend via Zoom, talk about Animal Crossing, and\u00a0witness\u00a0all forms of art: music, a\u00a0variety\u00a0show, music, poetry, storytelling, and interviews of\u00a0people who worked in marine conservation. It allowed Creatrix to exercise their skills as an artistic\u00a0director\u00a0and\u00a0proved that digital can be\u00a0an\u00a0excellent\u00a0platform\u00a0for theatre, so long as you give it a chance.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"love

Creatrix\u2019s avatar at the dedicated Animal Crossing Fringe Festival island in 2020. Source: Creatrix Tiara<\/p><\/div>\n

After the lockdown, Creatrix brought the soundtrack of Genshin Impact \u2014 an anime-style, role-playing game developed by\u00a0Hoyoverse\u00a0\u2014 to the orchestra in Australia. The game hosts the \u201cImpact4Music\u201d programme, which provides free access to sheet music for the soundtrack and seed funding for local orchestras.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That is unheard of when it comes to video games, and that\u2019s why Creatrix wanted to take full advantage of it: to bring a piece of Genshin Impact to a country where fans are left starved for content. A lot of merging video games and performing arts together is influenced by fandom culture, and\u00a0that,\u00a0Creatrix is\u00a0very familiar\u00a0with.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After all,\u00a0they did create\u00a0an entire website dedicated to their\u00a0favourite\u00a0musician.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the fans that would follow the story wherever they go,\u201d they said. \u201cIf\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a TV show, they will watch it. If\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a stage\u00a0play,\u00a0they would\u00a0go see\u00a0it, if\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0an immersive thing at a cafe, they will go. And so that energy is what\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0looking back\u00a0into and\u00a0just drawing\u00a0from. People are passionate. People want to show what they love.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Savage Garden to Animal Crossing, they tap into fans’ passions with their undertakings. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1988,"featured_media":489375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15],"countries":[3],"partner":[],"ppma_author":[1809],"class_list":["post-489373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-feel-good","countries-australia"],"acf":{"modules":null},"meta-shares":{"ppma_authors_name":["Sarah Jamil"],"_edit_lock":["1763710503:292"],"_edit_last":["292"],"rank_math_seo_score":["75"],"rank_math_focus_keyword":["fandom"],"rank_math_description":["From Savage Garden to Animal Crossing, here's how Creatrix Tiara is translating their love of fandoms into spaces fo people to connect."],"rank_math_title":["Creatrix Tiara takes their love of fandoms into the digital 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