Battle jackets are a depiction of social stratification amongst metal heads as a testament of long term devotion. As I inquired with my colleagues who regularly attended metal shows or members of a metal band I found a trend of non participation in battle jacket culture. However, online communities strive to connect dedicated fans across the globe. Online forums and crowdsourced projects are providing a connection in an underrepresented music category. 

Patchwork in Alternative Culture creates a context for a current anthropological documentation of community of music lovers and a specific fashion trend that transcends into multiple forms of metadata media. The social phenomon of creating a Battle Jacket in the metal head community is an identifier. The jackets are a source of individuality and creativity as they are not ready made products but a process over years of concert attending. 

The jackets can also be viewed as art themselves as artist Tom Cardwell has created a series of watercolor works on paper depicting these jackets. These jackets are also the subject of photography in Peter Beste's work documenting metal head culture. I aim to continue through the medium of digital collection creation to form a repository of these works and tell a complete story of patchwork in alternative culture. 

My personal interest in these jackets stem from my attendance at metal shows over the couse of the last decade beginning with 2016's Black Sabbath "The End Tour".  I had been fasinated with the jackets, their creation, and personal cataloguing of experience.