Biography
I research post-1995 online digital culture, with particular attention to Japan, Korea, Britain and the USA. I carry out this research by close reading a variety of media—Television Shows, Animations, Comics, Literature, and Video Games. My particular interest is in how these works twist their media format to present and work through digital cultural conditions. Recent work of mine has been on gamified feedback loops in the animated TV show Solo Leveling (나 혼자만 레벨업) and Lit-RPG fiction; the windowed UI of digital screens in mecha anime; and social media surveillance within Reality TV shows like Physical: 100 (피지컬: 100). Another key concern of my research is in how the nation—its borders, remit, and (soft) power—is theorized by governmental bodies and academics in the context of the internet. Here, key theorists for me have been Asada Akira, Azuma Hiroki, and Hamano Satoshi. Finally, my published work on VTubers is in conversation with Akiko Sugawa-Shimada’s 2.5D studies movement and it works towards a definition of theatricality that undercuts hard distinctions between digital and physical spaces.
Published Work
"The Actualizing Platform: 2.5 Dimensions in the VTuber Media Ecology." Mechademia, vol. 15 no. 2, 2023, p. 49-69.