Silvio Lorusso – Curriculum Vitae

Personal Information

name: Silvio Lorusso
born: 28/05/1985
tel: +31639483703
email: s@silviolorusso.com
skype: silvio.lorusso
website: silviolorusso.com
blog: networkcultures.org/entreprecariat

Short Biography

Silvio Lorusso is a writer, artist and designer based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In 2018 he published his first book entitled Entreprecariat. He is an assistant professor and vice-director of the Centre for Other Worlds at the Lusófona University in Lisbon. Lorusso holds a Ph.D. in Design Sciences from the Iuav University of Venice.

Medium Biography

Silvio Lorusso’s work focuses on the cultures and rhetorical regimes embedded in techno-social systems. His 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 (Onomatopee, English; Krisis, Italian). Silvio Lorusso is an assistant professor at the Centre for Other Worlds of the Lusófona University in Lisbon, a creative coding tutor at the Royal Academy of Art in Den Haag and a lecturer at the Design Department of the Sandberg Institute. He is a member of Varia, the Center for Everyday Technology, as well as part of the editorial board of Italian graphic design magazine Progetto Grafico. His work has been presented at, among other venues, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam; MaXXI, Rome; Transmediale, Berlin; The Photographers’ Gallery, London; Kunsthalle Wien. His writing has appeared in several magazines and publications, including Volume, Real Life Magazine, Not, Modes of Criticism.

Long 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 an assistant professor at the Centre for Other Worlds of the Lusófona University in Lisbon. He is a member of Varia, the Center for Everyday Technology, as well as 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 of the Iuav University of Venice. His writing has appeared in several magazines and publications, including Volume, Real Life Magazine, Minima&Moralia, Not, Modes of Criticism, Printed Web 3, Metropolis M, Ludica, Digicult. Since 2013, he manages the Post-Digital Publishing Archive (p-dpa.net). He lives in Rotterdam.

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

Teaching

  • 2021 – present
    • Assistant Professor and Vice-Director of the Center for Other Worlds at the Lusófona University in Lisbon (PT)
  • 2021 – 2022
    • Substitute Professor at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle (DE)
  • 2020 – 2021
    • Tutor at the Sandberg Institute, Design Department MA, Amsterdam (NL)
  • 2018 – 2021
    • Creative Coding Tutor at the Royal Academy of Art, Graphic Design Department 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).

Other 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

  • 2022
    • Fiverr: Creative Self-Destruction, in Uncanny Entrepreneurship, Konstantin Haensch, Lara Nelke, Matthias Planitzer, Caroline Ballegaard (eds.)
    • Expectations as Reality, The New Design Congress
    • “Fake it till you make it: Enterprise précaire ou précaire esprit d’entreprendre”, Revue Pneu, translation by Cédric Rossignol-Brunet
    • “Scuole d’arte e design: Expectations as reality”, CheFare
    • “Liquider L’utilisateur”, in Tèque #1
    • “Learn to Code vs Code to Learn: Creative Coding Beyond the Economic Imperative”, in Graphic Design in the Post-Digital Age, Demian Conrad, Rob van Leijsen and David Héritier (eds.)
  • 2021
    • Vernaculars come to matter (Preface), Cristina Cochior, Julie Boschat-Thorez and Manetta Berends (eds.)
    • Against Design Synthesis, Designers Write
    • Design and Power – Part 1, Other Worlds
    • “Design Fantasmagórico”, Portuguese translation by Guilerme Souza, guilerms.github.io
    • “This Software is Punk Rock. Recreating Winamp for the Browser”, with Jordan Eldredge, Progetto Grafico 37
    • “May the Bridges We Burn Light the Way”: Five Questions to a Dutch Design School’s Meme Page”, with @wdka.teachermemes, Other Worlds
    • “Tra lockdown e lock-in”, with Geert Lovink, Assembramenti, #0
    • “The User Condition: Computer Agency and Behavior”, https://theusercondition.computer/
    • “Missing Out on Dutch Design Week”, Het Nieuwe Instituut
  • 2020
    • “Il design diluito”, Menelique, #4
    • “Gig Economy Art and Its Dark Matter”, in Hyperemployment, Domenico Quaranta, Janez Janša (eds.), Nero
    • “Tra Survivorship Bias e la Pimpa, storia di un meme che non ce l’ha fatta”, Esquire Italia
    • Leggendo qua e là, La quarantena enigmistica, Nerto
    • “L’ère de l’entreprécariat”, Le Grand Continent, translation by Olivier Lenoir
    • “Noi, professione mitomani”, Esquire Italia
    • “Post – the Poster. A conversation between Freek Lomme, Silvio Lorusso and Max Bruinsma”, Onomatopee
    • “Idle Enchantment: Getting a Nintendo Switch During Lockdown”, Obieg
    • “Ori and The Blind Forest, a minute and a half of gameplay”, npc.cafe
    • “Ori and The Blind Forest, un minuto e mezzo di gameplay”, Ludica
    • “Baba Is You, Everything and The Supreme Fear”, npc.cafe
    • “We don’t want to get care from people who are not taken care of”, MoneyLab blog
    • “Baba Is You, Everything e lo spavento supremo”, Ludica
    • “Remote Work? Demand Dial-Up”, Platform BK
    • “Mi sono riscoperto gamer in lockdown, a 35 anni”, Esquire Italia
    • “Angry Birds vs Flappy Bird: On Action and Behaviour”, npc.cafe
    • “Interfacce aviarie: Angry Birds vs. Flappy Bird”, Not
    • “Dispatches from the Quarantine”, with Geert Lovink, Institute of Network Cultures blog
    • “The Other as Noise”, Real Life Magazine
    • “La società servile di massa”, Not
  • 2019
  • 2018
  • 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
  • 2015
  • 2014
  • 2013
  • 2012
    • “Interstizi”, OFFSET – Visioni e manifesti sulla città di Ravenna2
  • 2011

Curated Publications

  • 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

Curated Events and Exhibitions

  • 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)

Selected Talks, Presentations, Lectures

Exhibitions

Workshops

As varia

Residencies, Commissions, Grants, Awards, Acquisitions

  • 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

    • 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 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

Selected Press

  • 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