Staff profile

I am a media and screen studies scholar with a background in Japanese cultural studies. Before joining Durham, I was Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Keio University in Tokyo, while prior to that I taught at Loughborough University (Department of Media and Communication) and Birkbeck, University of London (Department of Languages and Cultures/Film Media and Cultural Studies).

My research starts from the problem of what counts as culture – and Japanese visual and media culture in particular – in the context of emergent processes of globalisation, digitalisation and algorithmic communication. Informed by the material and ecological ‘turn’ in media and communication research, my current research investigates the aesthetic and political implications of ordinary forms of sociotechnical interactions with Japanese animation and game media and the affective media environments they give rise to. I am currently working on my first monograph, tentatively titled Dispositives of ‘Extension’: Japanese Media Franchises and the Productivity of Circulation. This work investigates the ecologies of affect, creativity and value established by Japanese transmedia series as they move and morph across territories, technological platforms and contexts of use. Through the analysis of franchised and licensed distribution as well as unauthorised appropriation and counterfeiting, it provides an original model to account for the dynamic proliferation of Japanese animation and game media below and beyond the putative unity of the ‘digital’ and the Japanese nation-state.

As a permanent member of the Archive Centre for Anime Studies in Niigata (ACASiN, Niigata University), I am also involved in a long-term collaborative project aimed at investigating Japanese commercial animation through the tools and ‘intermediary’ materials once used for its production, such as celluloid sheets, storyboards, production notes, style guides, backgrounds paintings, etc. Thanks to this project, it has been possible to interrogate what is happening to animation filmmaking when technical instruments such as pencils, chemical paintings and polyester acetates are no longer used in drawing and shooting but are remediated through digital design practices. By establishing fruitful conversations with creative studios, cultural institutions, policy-makers and macromolecular scientists, this project raises awareness on the preservation of rare and perishable visual materials that, for their disposable and legally unattributable nature, were not initially meant to be collected and exhibited.

Research Interests

• The aesthetic and politics of Japanese animation and game media
• Media franchising and transmediality
• Media globalisation, especially from Japanese and East Asian perspectives
• Formal and informal media circulation and distribution geographies
• Intellectual properties, the licensing industry and design economies
• Media infrastructures
• Digital, creative and affective labour
• The cultural and creative industries, with special focus on Japan and East Asia
• Media materiality and eco-criticism

Research Supervision

I welcome inquiries from potential postgraduate research students interested in Japanese media, visual cultures or specific areas covered by my research interests.

Book review

• Lolli, D. (2015). Félix Guattari, Machinic Eros: Writings on Japan
• Lolli, D. (2014). Marc Steinberg, Anime’s media mix: Franchising toys and characters in Japan. Convergence, 20(2), https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856514525318
• Lolli, D. (2014). Ian Condry, The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story. Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 9(1), https://doi.org/10.1177/1746847713518463a

Chapter in book

• Lolli, D. (in press). Media Mixing through Licensing: Gundam’s 40th Anniversary and 'Beyond'. In J. Berndt (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Manga and Anime
• Lolli, D. (2020). Immaterial Labour. In M. Baker, B. B. Blaagaard, H. Jones, & L. Pérez-González (Eds.), The Routledge Encyclopedia of Citizen Media (207-214). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315619811
• Lolli, D. (2020). Notes from the Watanabe Collection: Media Archives and the Future of Anime History. In M. Ishida, & J. Y. Kim (Eds.), Archiving Movements: Short Essays on Anime and Visual Media Materials (50-62). Niigata University
• Lolli, D. (2019). The Film through the Archive and the Archive through the Film: History, Technology and Progress in Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise. In M. Ishida, & J. Y. Kim (Eds.), Archiving Movements: Short Essays on Materials of Anime and Visual Media (17-24). Niigata University
• Oyama, S., & Lolli, D. (2016). When the Media Do not Quite Converge: The Case of Fuji Tv vs. Livedoor. In P. W. Galbraith, & J. G. Karlin (Eds.), Media Convergence in Japan (99-122). Kinema Club

Journal Article

• Lolli, D. (2022). Infrastructures for media ‘extension’: licensing trade expos and the production of media distribution. Media, Culture and Society, 44(2), 210-229. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437211037003
• Lolli, D. (2018). ‘The fate of Shenmue is in your hands now!’: Kickstarter, video games and the financialization of crowdfunding. Convergence, 25(5-6), 985-999. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856518780478

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Lolli, D. On Shinkai Makoto, indigenous spiritualism and animation ecologies. [Online]