Silvio Lorusso – Curriculum Vitae

Personal Information

name: Silvio Lorusso
born: 28/05/1985
tel: +351912981334
email: s@silviolorusso.com
website: silviolorusso.com
blog: networkcultures.org/entreprecariat

Short Biography

Silvio Lorusso is an Italian writer, artist and designer based in Lisbon, Portugal. He published Entreprecariat (Onomatopee) in 2019 and What Design Can’t Do (Set Margins’) in 2023. Lorusso is an assistant professor at the Lusófona University in Lisbon and a tutor at the Information Design department of Design Academy Eindhoven. He holds a Ph.D. in Design Sciences from the Iuav University of Venice.

Medium Biography

Silvio Lorusso is an Italian writer, artist and designer based in Lisbon, Portugal. He published Entreprecariat (Onomatopee) in 2019 and What Design Can’t Do (Set Margins’) in 2023. Lorusso is an assistant professor at the Lusófona University in Lisbon and a tutor at the Information Design department of Design Academy Eindhoven. He holds a Ph.D. in Design Sciences from the Iuav University of Venice. Lorusso’s work touches upon visual communication, memes, post-digital publishing, entrepreneurship and precarity, digital platforms, design culture and politics, creative coding, art and design education, videogames. His practice combines a variety of media such as video, website, artist’s book, installation, lecture. This activity is further stimulated by writing essays, curating exhibitions and organizing public programs. Between 2020 and 2024, Lorusso co-directed with Francisco Laranjo the Center for Other Worlds. He has been a member of Varia, the Center for Everyday Technology, as well as part of the editorial board of Italian graphic design magazine Progetto Grafico. Among other venues, his work has been presented at Het Nieuwe Instituut (Rotterdam), MaXXI (Rome), Transmediale (Berlin), The Photographers’ Gallery (London), Kunsthalle Wien, MAAT (Lisbon). His writing has appeared in several magazines and publications, including Volume, Real Life Magazine, Metropolis M, Il Tascabile, Esquire Italia.

Long Biography

Silvio Lorusso is an Italian writer, artist and designer based in Lisbon, Portugal. He published Entreprecariat (Onomatopee) in 2019 and What Design Can’t Do (Set Margins’) in 2023. Lorusso is an assistant professor at the Lusófona University in Lisbon and a tutor at the Information Design department of Design Academy Eindhoven. He holds a Ph.D. in Design Sciences from the Iuav University of Venice. Lorusso’s work touches upon visual communication, memes, post-digital publishing, entrepreneurship and precarity, digital platforms, design culture and politics, creative coding, art and design education, videogames. His practice combines a variety of media such as video, website, artist’s book, installation, lecture. This activity is further stimulated by writing essays, curating exhibitions and organizing public programs. Between 2020 and 2024, Lorusso co-directed with Francisco Laranjo the Center for Other Worlds. He has been a member of Varia, the Center for Everyday Technology, as well as part of the editorial board of Italian graphic design magazine Progetto Grafico. Between 2018 and 2023, Lorusso was a coding tutor at the Graphic Design BA of the Royal Academy of Art of The Hague. He also taught at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam and was a substitute professor at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle. Together with Margreet Riphagen, Lorusso has run the PublishingLab, a spin-off of the Institute for Network Cultures in Amsterdam, between 2015 and 2017. Among other venues, his work has been presented at Het Nieuwe Instituut (Rotterdam), MaXXI (Rome), Transmediale (Berlin), The Photographers’ Gallery (London), Kunsthalle Wien, MAAT (Lisbon), Kunsthalle Zürich, Nam June Paik Art Center (Seoul), NRW-Forum (Düsseldorf), Drugo More (Rijeka), Aksioma (Ljubljana). His writing has appeared in several magazines and publications, including Volume, Real Life Magazine, Metropolis M, Esquire Italia, Il Tascabile, Minima&Moralia, Not, Modes of Criticism, Ludica, Digicult. His books and essays have been translated into various languages including Portuguese, Dutch, French, Polish, Slovenian, Japanese and Korean. Since 2013, he intermittently manages the Post-Digital Publishing Archive (p-dpa.net).

Photos: portrait by Roel Backaert, portrait by Marta Sternberg, portrait by Joseph Knierzinger.

Teaching

  • 2021 – present
    • Assistant Professor and Vice-Director of the Center for Other Worlds at the Lusófona University in Lisbon (PT)
  • 2022 – present
    • Tutor at Design Academy Eindhoven, Information Design MA (NL)
  • 2021 – 2022
    • Substitute Professor at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle (DE)
  • 2020 – 2021
    • Tutor at the Sandberg Instituut, Design Department MA, Amsterdam (NL)
  • 2018 – 2023
    • Creative Coding Tutor at the Royal Academy of Art, Graphic Design BA, The Hague (NL)
  • 2020
    • Lecturer in Sociology of Cultural Processes at the Abadir Academy, Catania (IT)
  • 2018
    • Guest Lecturer at Piet Zwart Institute, Master in Experimental Publishing, Rotterdam (NL)
  • 2016
    • Graphic Design Tutor at CFP Bauer, Milano (IT)

Certification: Basic Qualification in Didactic Skills (BDB), Part A (BKE+)

Silvio lectured and presented his work at Royal College of Art, London (UK); Yale School of Art, New Haven (US); Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam (NL); Design Academy Eindhoven (NL); HEAD Géneve (CH); Pratt Institute, New York (US); Konstfak (SE); AKV|St.Joost, Breda (NL); École de recherche graphique, Bruxelles (BE); Coventry University (UK); Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti, Bergamo (IT); Iuav University of Venice (IT).

Further Work Experience

  • 2016 – 2017
    • Mentor at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences’ PublishingLab, Amsterdam (NL)
    • Lecturer at CFP Bauer, Milano (IT)
  • 2010 – 2017
    • Freelance Graphic and Web Designer

Books

Publications

Curated, Edited and Translated Publications

  • 2024
    • “Imprenditori o precari?”, Atlas, magazine directed by Raffaele Alberto Ventura
  • 2023
  • 2022
    • Progetto Grafico 38: Perdere, co-curated with Jonathan Pierini, Gianluca Camillini, Erica Preli, Emilio Macchia, Michele Galluzzo, Caterina Di Paolo, Giulia Cordin, Davide Giorgetta
    • Design Capital #1 – The Circuit by Hannah Ellis co-edited with Francisco Laranjo and Luiza Prado
    • Progetto Grafico 37: Salvare, co-curated with Jonathan Pierini, Gianluca Camillini, Erica Preli, Emilio Macchia, Michele Galluzzo, Caterina Di Paolo, Giulia Cordin, Davide Giorgetta
  • 2021
    • Progetto Grafico 36: Profano, co-curated with Jonathan Pierini, Gianluca Camillini, Erica Preli, Emilio Macchia, Michele Galluzzo, Caterina Di Paolo, Giulia Cordin, Davide Giorgetta
    • Other Worlds journal
  • 2020
  • 2019
    • Progetto Grafico 37: Salvare, co-curated with Jonathan Pierini, Gianluca Camillini, Erica Preli, Emilio Macchia, Michele Galluzzo, Caterina Di Paolo, Giulia Cordin
    • Progetto Grafico 35: Sacro, co-curated with Jonathan Pierini, Gianluca Camillini, Erica Preli, Emilio Macchia, Michele Galluzzo, Caterina Di Paolo, Giulia Cordin
    • Progetto Grafico 34: Divertimento, co-curated with Jonathan Pierini, Gianluca Camillini, Erica Preli, Emilio Macchia, Michele Galluzzo, Caterina Di Paolo, Giulia Cordin, Giorgio Ruggeri
    • Python for Designers, by Roberto Arista (editor)
    • Pervasive Labour Union Zine #11, co-curated with Lídia Pereira
  • 2018
  • 2015

Selected Talks, Presentations, Lectures, Events

Curated Events and Exhibitions

  • 2024
    • Launch of “Automação e Autonomia: Dois Ensaios Sobre Design” by J. Dakota Brown, Delli, Lusófona University, Lisbon, Portugal
  • 2023
  • 2021
  • 2019
    • Gallery.Delivery Milan: Weird Domesticity (with Luigi Amato, Enrico Boccioletti, Guendalina Cerruti, Kamilia Kard, Lorem, Rachele Maistrello, Filippo Minelli, Parasite 2.0, Elena Radice, The Cool Couple), Milan, IT
    • Do or Delegate: Entrepreneurial Means and Precarious Ends (with Cory Arcangel, Deconstructeam, Constant Dullaart, Andy Kassier, Alina Lupu, Elisa Giardina Papa, Ottonie von Roeder, Sebastian Schmieg, Stefán Stefánsson, Pilvi Takala, Jeff Thompson), Onomatopee, Eindhoven, NL
    • Who Does What? exhibition and symposium (with Florian Alexander-Schmidt, Anxious to Make, Deconstructeam, Constant Dullaart, Maria Eichhorn, Sam Kidel, Alina Lupu, François Girard-Meunier, Elisa Giardina Papa, Ottonie Roeder, Sebastian Schmieg, Jeff Thompson), Drugo More, Rijeka, HR
  • 2018
    • Life Hacks: Mind (with Marguerite van den Berg, Geert Lovink, XPUB), Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, NL
    • Life Hacks: Time (with Michele Galluzzo, Rik Laging, Luis Rodil-Fernandez, Hans Lammerant, Mia Melvaer, Martino Morandi, XPUB), Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, NL
    • Life Hacks: Space (with François Girard-Meunier, WORKNOT!, Roel Roscam Abbing, Manetta Berends, Niek Hilkmann, XPUB), varia, Rotterdam, NL
    • It Is As If We Were Doing Work (with Lídia Pereira, Alina Lupu, Gui Machiavelli), varia, Rotterdam, NL
  • 2014
  • 2012
    • Unlike Art (with Dušan Barok, André Castro, Mirjam Dissel, Eleanor Greenhalgh, Fabien Labeyrie, Jonas Lund, Sebastian Schmieg, Bartholomäus Traubeck, Danny Van Der Kleij, Jasper Van Loenen, Marie Wocher, Dave Young), Amsterdam (NL)

Exhibitions

Workshops And Seminars

  • 2023
    • ALL CAPS: Towards a Reader on Design and Capitalism, Design Academy Eindhoven – Information Design Department, NL
  • 2022
    • Do Your Own Research, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, IT
    • Design Panism and Its Discontents, Design Academy Eindhoven – Information Design Department, NL
  • 2017
  • 2016
  • 2015
  • 2013

As varia

Residencies, Commissions, Grants, Awards, Acquisitions

  • 2024
  • 2019
    • KABK Research Grant 2020
    • Five Years of Captured Captchas, made with Sebastian Schmieg, was acquired by Fotomuseum Winterthur
  • 2017
    • 56 Broken Kindle Screens, made with Sebastian Schmieg, and Blank on Demand, made with Giulia Ciliberto were acquired by the MoMA Library as part of Paul Soulellis’ Library of The Printed Web
  • 2016
  • 2015
  • 2013
  • 2012
    • OFFSET, residency in Ravenna, IT

Thesis Supervision

Interviews

Education

  • 2016
  • 2012
    • Networked Media, Piet Zwart Institute (study period), Rotterdam, NL
  • 2010
    • Visual and Multimedia Communication MA, Iuav University of Venice, IT
  • 2008
    • METU, Middle East Technical University of Ankara (exchange), TR
  • 2008
    • Industrial Design BA at Politecnico di Bari, IT

Academic Projects

  • 2018-20
    • Making Public, RAAK-MKB
  • 2013-15
    • Digital Publishing Toolkit – Electronic Publishing in the Arts, RAAK-MKB

Board and Peer Review Activities

  • 2022
    • Peer-review for the Internet Policy Review Journal
  • 2021-2022
    • External Expert, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam
  • 2020
    • External Examiner, Master in Situated Design, AKV|St. Joost (graduation)
  • 2019
    • External Jury Member, Design department of the Sandberg Instituut (graduation)
    • External Examiner, Master in Graphic Design, AKV|St. Joost (graduation)
  • 2018
    • Judge, HP Research Award, Willem De Kooning Academy

Selected Reviews

Critical Literature

  • 2022
    • Crypto-arte radicale?, Not by Alessandro Y. Longo
    • Per una storia della letteratura elettronica italiana by Roberta Iadevaia, Milano: Mimesis
  • 2021
    • Kollaterales Schreiben. Digitale Kollaboration im Zeitalter von Crowdworking und Algotaylorismus, Text + Kritik by Annett Gilbert
  • 2018
    • Vom Rand ins Zentrum – Vom Buch zum Publizieren, Kunstforum by Annett Gilbert
    • Im toten Winkel der Literatur, Wilhelm Fink by Annett Gilbert

Selected Press

  • The Thing: The Politics of Design
  • 032c: Maggie Dunlap’s Teenage Murders
  • Shifter: Notas sobre logótipos, design, política e função
  • Gama Revista: Fim de ciclo, novos desafios e voos mais altos: a linguagem da demissão no LinkedIn
  • Fast Company: The best design books of 2023
  • Exibart: Guida di sopravvivenza al design per designer: il nuovo saggio di Silvio Lorusso
  • Harvard Business Review Italia: La crescente rilevanza dei megatrend culturali per le imprese
  • DAMN Magazine: Who Can Afford to be Critical?
  • UOL: ‘Emprecariado’: o limite entre empreendedorismo e precarização está sumindo
  • Right Click Save: How to Do Your Own Research
  • Domus: If work becomes our life
  • Libération: «Algotaylorism», plus Web la vie
  • Widewalls: Order an Art Exhibition Online and Have it Delivered to Your Home!
  • Revue Esprit: De la classe virtuelle aux ouvriers du clic by Antonio Casilli
  • European Photography: The European Photography List of 40 Books
  • Frieze: What Role Do Photographers Play in an Increasingly Automated Image Culture?
  • Leuzerner Zeitung: Wenn die Flügel erlahmen
  • Kunstforum 243 (Austria): Totgesagte leben länger
  • El Diario: Las vergüenzas de internet, a la venta: el mercadillo negro de la Red llega a España
  • Abitare: Natura e artificio al Maxxi by Francesca Oddo
  • We Make Money Not Art: DADABOT. The role of algorithms in cultural production
  • Corriere della Sera – La Lettura: Crac & Successi – I conti (da rifare) di Kickstarter
  • Le Temps: «Dadabot», lorsque les algorithmes produisent notre culture
  • Washington Post: Meet the Web site where start-up dreams go to die
  • Wired IT: 5 artisti digitali italiani da tenere d’occhio
  • It’s Nice That: P-DPA is a user generated archive of developments in digital publishing
  • Guardian: Kickended: the enthralling world of crowdfunding flops
  • Financial Times: Learn from the losers
  • Wired DE: Null Dollar, null Unterstützer, null Erfolg: Auf dem Friedhof der Kickstarter-Projekte
  • DazedDigital: Shed a tear over this archive of failed Kickstarters
  • BuzzFeed: Kickended, The Online Graveyard For $0 Funded Kickstarters
  • Boing Boing: Kickended tracks completely unfunded Kickstarter projects
  • Gawker: The Tragically Boring Kickstarters That Got Zero Dollars From Backers
  • Repubblica.it: Le idee peggiori di Kickstarter: nemmeno un dollaro raccolto
  • Corriere.it: Tutti i progetti di crowdfunding più assurdi
  • Yahoo! Tech: A New Website Highlights Kickstarter Projects That Failed to Attract a Single Backer
  • CNET: Kickended: Where $0 failed Kickstarters go to die
  • Daily Mirror: Here are the Kickstarter projects that got £0 funding
  • CreatorsProject NL: 3 redenen om dit weekend naar Impakt Festival te gaan
  • Artribune 22: Un quiz con Google Immagini
  • BuzzFeed: Can You Guess The Google Search Term By Its Image Results?
  • Eye Magazine: Content Aware typography makes Adobe’s software ‘fail’ in the most interesting way
  • Rivista Studio: Un concentrato di lettura
  • Dangerous Minds: Photoshop’s Content-Aware Fill Feature is Surprisingly Punk
  • Gizmodo: When Photoshop’s Content-Aware Fill Screws Up It Makes Art
  • It’s Nice That: Using the Content Aware tool to really mess up famous typography
  • Newcity Art: Review: Structures for Reading/Center for Book and Paper Arts
  • BuzzFeed: A Celebration Of Pimping Your WinAmp Skin
  • FastCoDesign: See Where Websites Live
  • Gizmodo: Find Out Where That Internet On Your Computer Really Came From
  • Motherboard: A Tour of the Internet from a Thousand Feet Up
  • BuzzFeed: Silvio Lorusso, An Artist Of Delightful Internet Things
  • Boing Boing: 56 Broken Kindle Screens: book and video
  • The Verge: Broken Kindles as art, in book form
  • Wired: Showtime: Silvio Lorusso and Sebastian Schmieg, ’56 Broken Kindle Screens’
  • Triangulation Blog: 56 Broken Kindle Screens
  • Creative Applications: Kindle as an Art Object
  • Huffington Post: Ending Left Handed Discrimination In Google Chrome With Silvio Lorusso’s Cursor Plug-In
  • Makeuseof: Internet For Left-Handers: Turns Right-Hand Mouse Coursor into Left-Hand Cursor