Biography

Silvio Lorusso’s work focuses on the cultures and rhetorical regimes embedded in techno-social systems. He deals with the narratives and counternarratives that define platforms, devices and interfaces. By doing so, he engages with the tensions surrounding notions of labour, productivity, autonomy, self-design, entrepreneurialism, precarity and failure. Lorusso’s practice combines various media such as video, website, artist’s book, installation, lecture. This activity is further stimulated by writing essays, curating exhibitions and organizing public programs. In 2018 he published his first book entitled ENTREPRECARIAT: Everyone Is an Entrepreneur. Nobody Is Safe. (Onomatopee, English; Krisis, Italian).

Silvio Lorusso is Affiliated Researcher at the Institute of Network Cultures of Amsterdam, Creative Coding Tutor at the Royal Academy of Art in Den Haag and researcher at the Willem De Kooning Academy. He’s also a member of varia and part of the editorial board of Italian graphic design magazine Progetto Grafico. His work has been presented at, among other venues, MaXXI, Rome; Transmediale, Berlin; The Photographers’ Gallery, London; Kunsthalle Wien; NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf. He holds a Ph.D. in Design Sciences from the School of Doctorate Studies – Iuav University of Venice. His writing has appeared in several magazines and publications, including Pagina99, Minima&Moralia, Not, Modes of Criticism, Printed Web 3, Metropolis M, Digicult. Since 2013, he manages the Post-Digital Publishing Archive (p-dpa.net). He lives in Rotterdam.

“Silvio is a black mirror for design, simultaneously insightful, alarming and funny as fuck.” – Luke Prowse

Photos: portrait by Tjaša Kalkan, portrait by Fulvio Orsenigo, portrait by Tanja Kanazir.

Teaching

• 2018 – present
  • Creative Coding Tutor at Royal Academy of Art, Graphic Design Department, The Hague (NL)
• 2018
  • Guest Lecturer at Piet Zwart Instituut, 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+)

Guest at Royal College of Art, London (UK); Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam (NL); Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam (NL); 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).

Books

• 2019
  • ENTREPRECARIAT: Everyone Is an Entrepreneur. Nobody Is Safe. (with a foreword by Geert Lovink and an afterword by Raffaele Alberto Ventura), Onomatopee
• 2018
  • ENTREPRECARIAT: Siamo tutti imprenditori. Nessuno è al sicuro (with a foreword by Geert Lovink and an afterword by Raffaele Alberto Ventura), Krisis Publishing

Publications

• 2019
  • “L’attivismo per timidi di Introfada è un manifesto speculativo per una nuova democrazia”, cheFare
  • “Triggerati dal rumore di una gomma da masticare”, Not
  • “Federated Publishing: Roel Roscam Abbing in conversation with Florian Cramer — A Report”, Pervasive Labour Union Zine #13
  • “L’Anti-Game, tra Baricco e Bifo”, Minima&Moralia
  • “On Design and Disillusion”, Design School: After Boundaries and Disciplines, Paul A. Rodgers, Craig Bremner (eds.)
• 2018
  • “The Designer Without Qualities”, Extra Curricular, Jacob Lindgren (ed.)
  • The Techno-Galactic Guide to Software Observation (contributor)
  • “First as Arts, Then as Tragedy — Two Cents on Personal Crowdfunding and Creative Entrepreneurialism”, MoneyLab Reader 2: Overcoming the Hype, Inte Gloerich, Geert Lovink and Patricia de Vries (eds.)
• 2017
  • “LinkedIn Society”, Modes of Criticism 3, Francisco Laranjo (ed.)
  • “What Design Can’t Do”, the Entreprecariat
  • “La città dell’iperlavoro, Prismo
  • “Squatting the Continuous Office”, Immaterial Labor Union Zine #7, Lídia Pereira (ed.)
  • “Il graphic design tra automazione e relativismo”, CheFare
• 2016
  • (-: Mood-Hacking :-), Immaterial Labor Union Zine #6, Lídia Pereira (ed.)
• 2015
  • “The Radical Potential of Networked Standardisation”, Code—X – Paper, Ink, Pixel and Screen
  • “Devi proprio leggere questo articolo?”, Prismo
  • “In Defense of Poor Media”, Printed Web 3, Paul Soulellis (ed.)
  • Natural Gestures, Gauss PDF
  • “Siamo uomini o algoritmi?”, Doppiozero
• 2014
  • From Print to Ebooks: a Hybrid Publishing Toolkit for the Arts, DPT Collective (contributor)
  • “Critical Publishing Il progetto come strumento di indagine degli ecosistemi editoriali nell’era dell’utente emancipato”, Diid 57|14: Design Open Source
  • “What does learning, and learning design, mean to you?”, with Giulia Ciliberto, About Learning and Design, bu.press
  • “Off the Press – A Report from the Field of E-Publishing”, Metropolis M
  • “From browser’s cache to the human genome. Towards an extended notion of publishing”, Digicult
  • “          ”, See Nothing Volume Three
  • “Collate and the Future of Publishing”, Collate
  • “Dalla cache al genoma umano – Verso una nozione estesa del pubblicare”, Fahrenheit 39
• 2013
  • “Dal white cube all’Apple Store”, Doppiozero
  • “56 Broken Kindle Screens”, with Sebastian Schmieg, Krisis | Orientation
  • “Roberto Casati e il progetto della lettura”, Doppiozero
  • “The Book as Directory”, Digital Publishing Toolkit
  • “Quando il lettore diventa utente”, Doppiozero
  • “Brevi note sulle risposte artistiche ai mutamenti nel campo dell’editoria”, Fahrenheit 39
  • “Back to Students”, Abitare 529
• 2012
  • “Interstizi”, OFFSET – Visioni e manifesti sulla città di Ravenna2
• 2011
  • “Carboni e Barilla – Innovazione nella tradizione”, Progetto Grafico 20

Curated Publications

• 2019
  • 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
  • Progetto Grafico 33: Lavoro, co-curated with Jonathan Pierini, Gianluca Camillini, Erica Preli, Emilio Macchia, Michele Galluzzo, Caterina Di Paolo, Giulia Cordin
  • Pervasive Labour Union Zine #11, co-curated with Lídia Pereira
• 2015
  • Progetto Grafico #28 — Publishing, co-curated with Maria Rosaria Digregorio, Silvia Sfligiotti, Stefano Vittori, November 2015

Curated Events and Exhibitions

• 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
  • Off the Press: Electronic Publishing in the Arts (Manuel Schmalstieg, Six:Thirty, TRAUMAWIEN, The People’s E-Book), WORM, Rotterdam (NL)
• 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)

Selected Talks, Presentations, Lectures

• 2020
  • Étudier les cultures du numérique, Gaîté Lyrique, Paris, FR
• 2019
  • Benzina sul fuoco, Scuola Open Source, Bari, IT
  • New Modes of Production, Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, NL
  • Making Space, Willem De Kooning Academie, Rotterdam, NL
  • Precarious Permanence, Onomatopee, Eindhoven, NL
  • We Are All Entrepreneurs, Brera Design Days, Milano, IT
  • Ghostwriting Files!, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, NL
  • Bring Your Own Time, Bring Your Own Bricks, Onomatopee, Eindhoven, NL
  • Creative Self-Destruction, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, DE
  • Entreprecariat, Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam, NL
• 2018
  • Work & Play & Insist, Macao, Milan, IT
  • In Defense of Poor Media, Konstfack, Stockholm, SE
  • A-Z Night #7: Future of Work, Nieuwe Zaal, Hasselt, BE
  • Entrepreneurial Spirit, Bureaucreativity and Self-Design, Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam, NL
  • Be Like Elon during The Graphic Revolution, Pakhuis de Zwijger, Rotterdam, NL
  • Post Digital Printing, FotoColectania, Barcelona, ES
  • The Designer without Qualities, Grafill, Oslo, NO
  • Based In, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, NL
• 2017
  • Zine Camp 2017, Rotterdam, NL
  • Radicality in Contemporary Graphic Design, AMT Southampton, UK
  • All Things Optimal, CIM Warwick, UK
  • A Constellation of -Wares, Techno-Galactic Software Observatory, Brussels, BE
  • The Artist Entrepreneur, Praksis, Oslo, NO
  • Ten Desperate Attempts At Exploring The Medium Of Leisure, Leisure Inc (Silvio Lorusso and Sebastian Schmieg), Berlin, DE
  • Disrupting Precarization, Re:Publica, Berlin, DE
  • Dobrodošli u poduzetnički prekarijat, Drugo More, Rijeka, HR
  • Symposium Citizen-Designer, AKV|St.Joost, Breda, NL
  • The Empire Strikes Again, La Scuola Open Source, Bari, IT
• 2016
  • Welcome to the Entreprecariat, Sandberg Instituut + LustLAB, Den Haag, NL
  • DAN D, Zagreb, HR
  • Thinking Through Publishing, Central St. Martins, London, UK
  • Eady Forum, Royal College of Arts, London, UK
• 2015
  • The Competitive Aesthetics of Failure, MoneyLab#2: Economies of Dissent, Amsterdam, NL
  • Localhost: RWX, Edinburgh, UK
  • Tag Cloud, KABK, Den Hague, NL
• 2014
  • Showcases Digital Publishing Toolkit, Amsterdam, NL
  • The Postdigital Scholar Conference, Lüneburg, DE
  • Post-Digital Publishing. Between Print and Electrons, Willem de Kooning Academie, Rotterdam, NL
  • Biennale Architettura. Weekend Specials: Networked Politics, Venice, IT
  • XYLAB – New Publishing, Castrignano de’ Greci, IT
  • L’arte nell’età dell’informazione: un’introduzione, Pastificio Cerere, Rome, IT
  • The Aesthetics of the Humanities: Towards a Poetic Knowledge Production, Coventry University, UK
  • Incontro con Silvio Lorusso, Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti, Bergamo, IT
• 2013
  • Orient Express: il viaggio nello sviluppo della pratica artistica, Venice, IT
  • LETSPUBLISH, Lecce, IT
  • Fahrenheit 39 – Third Edition, Ravenna, IT

Exhibitions

• 2019
  • Mind the Deep: Artificial Intelligence and Artistic Creation, McaM, Shangai, CN
  • Hyperemployment, Aksioma, Ljubljana, SI
  • The Glass Room, San Francisco, US
  • Not Only Cigarettes, Green Cube Gallery, Viareggio, IT
• 2018
  • Projected.Capital, with Sebastian Schmieg, Roehrs & Boetsch, Zurich, CH
  • To look is to labor, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, CH
  • All I know Is What’s on the Internet, The Photographers’ Gallery, London, UK
  • Gallery.Delivery, Berlin, DE
  • Monoskop Exhibition Library, Seoul Mediacity Biennale, KR
  • Lifelong Learning, Drugo More, Rijeka, HR
  • Regime der Vorhersage, Galerie Weißer Elefant, Berlin, DE
  • Ist gut nicht gut genug?, Vögele Kultur Zentrum, Pfäffikon, CH
  • Inside Internet Corridors, Uk Parobrod, Belgrad, RS
  • I am not a robot, Electromuseum, Moscow, RU
  • Policy of Disappearance, Studio Gallery BWA, Wrocław, PL
• 2017
  • PlanD: Techno-Optimism/Techno-Pessimism, Zagreb, HR
  • Escaping the Digital Unease!, Langenthal, CH
  • Floppy Totaal, WORM, Rotterdam, NL
  • #Exstrange, 2017
• 2016
  • Ein Knacks im Leben – Wir scheitern… und wie weiter?, Vögele Kultur Zentrum, CH
  • Free WiFi/ Gratis WLAN, Eigen + Art Lab, Berlin, DE
  • Internet Yami-Ichi, Barcelona, ES
  • Sight & Sound, Montreal, CA
  • Robots Building Robots, Hedreen Gallery, Seattle, USA
  • The Poster Remediated, Warsaw, PL
  • THE POSTHUMAN (Screening), Crosstalk Video Art Festival, Budapest, HU, May 26 – May 29, 2016
  • Streaming Egos, NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf, DE
• 2015
  • Identify me, G12HUB, Belgrade, RS
  • Phaenomenale, phæno, Wolfsburg, DE
  • ISEA 2015, Vancouver, CA
  • WTi 2.0, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, DE
  • 16th Media Art Biennale WRO 2015, Wroclaw, PL
  • Adhocracy Athens, GR
  • Transmediale 2015: Capture All, Berlin, DE
• 2014
  • Autopoiesis is Greek for self creation, @thehub/#digital3mpire, Düsseldorf, DE
  • Impakt Festival, Utrecht, NL
  • Unmasking the Network, ASC Projects, San Francisco, USA
  • Erreur d’impression, Publier à l’ère numérique, Jeu De Paume, Paris, FR
  • Dans Cinquante Ans d’Ici, Les Territoires, Montreal, CA, March 12 – April 13, 2014
• 2013
  • VJ14, Brussels, BE
  • Chercher le texte, Paris, FR
  • local.#non.access, km temporaer, Berlin, DE
  • SI Fest #22, Savignano, IT
  • 1/18 Poster Exhibition, Belgrade, RS
  • Structures for Reading, Chicago, USA
  • DVD Dead Drop Vol.5, Museum of Moving Image, NY, USA
  • 56 Broken Kindle Screens at Link Point, Brescia, IT
• 2012
  • VAFA – Video Art For All, Macau, CN
  • Projet Octopus
  • Fahrenheit 39 – Second Edition, Ravenna, IT
  • MICRO Festival, Milan, IT
• 2011
  • Fahrenheit 39 – First Edition, Ravenna, IT

Workshops

• 2017
  • Make Book Make Soup, PublishingLab, Amsterdam, NL
• 2016
  • ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY, with Luigi Amato, Fahrenheit 39, Ravenna, IT
• 2015
  • The Mobile is the Massage #3, PublishingLab, Amsterdam, NL
  • The Mobile is the Massage #2, HGK, Basel, CH
  • The Mobile is the Massage with Jacopo Pompilii, IUAV University of Venice, IT
• 2013
  • Post-digital Publishing Workshop, with André Castro, Transmediale, Berlin, DE

As varia

• 2019
  • One evening, Two launches, Three takes , Varia, Rotterdam, NL
  • The Social in the Media: On Digital Dependencies, with Roel Roscam Abbing, Manetta Berends, Cristina Cochior and Julie Boshat Thorez, ODD, Bucharest, RO
• 2018
  • Inter-Planetary File System unearthed, with Cristina Cochior and Julie Boshat Thorez, varia, Rotterdam, NL

Residencies, Commissions, Grants, Awards

• 2016
  • Unpacking my library, commissioned piece for Unfold #4, curated by Alessandro Ludovico
• 2015
  • Social Media Art Award at Phaenomenale 2015, with Sebastian Schmieg
• 2013
  • Residency at Variable F/LOSS Arts Lab, Brussels, BE
  • e-PERMANENT Artist Commission, Brighton, UK
• 2012
  • OFFSET, residency in Ravenna, IT

Thesis Supervision

• 2016
  • Amateur. Non-institutional practices between digital archiving and publishing by Davide Giorgetta and Valerio Nicoletti, 2016 (co-supervisor)

Interviews

• 2019
  • “Entreprecariat: We are all entrepreneurs. Nobody is safe by Filippo Lorenzin, Digicult
• 2017
  • Interview in User-Agent: If everything is so smooth, why am I so sad?, Anastasia Kubrak (ed.)
  • “Entreprecariat, Lorusso spiega i pro e i contro di essere imprenditori di se stessi” by Samuele Cafasso, Lettera43
  • “Optimističan sam po pitanju korisnosti pesimizma” by Petra Milički, Dizajn
  • “The Aesthetics of Productive Anxiety: Silvio Lorusso and the Entreprecariat” by Nicola Bozzi, Digimag Journal #75
• 2015
  • Dadabot by Nicolas Nova, 2015
• 2014
  • “Kickended: the enthralling world of crowdfunding flops” by Nell Frizzell, The Guardian
  • Interview by Sara Teleman, Tecknaren
  • The Art of Hybrid Publishing”, interview by the Hybrid Publishing Lab
• 2013
  • “Ashes of the Web” by Filippo Lorenzin in Digitcult

Education

• • Ph.D. in Design Sciences, School of Doctorate Studies – Iuav University of Venice. (Title of dissertation: Extending Horizons: The Praxis of Experimental Publishing in the Age of Digital Networks)
• • Networked Media, Piet Zwart Institute (study period), Rotterdam, NL
• • Visual and Multimedia Communication MA, Iuav University of Venice, IT
• • METU, Middle East Technical University of Ankara (exchange), TR
• • 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 Activities

• 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 Press

• 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