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 at the Lusófona University, 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)

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).

Books

• 2024
  • デザインに できないこと, BNN
• 2023
  • What Design Can’t Do: Essays on Design and Disillusion, Set Margins’
  • EMPRECARIADO: Todo mundo é empreendedor. Ninguém está a salvo. (with an introduction by Tulio Custódio, a foreword by Geert Lovink and an afterword by Raffaele Alberto Ventura), Clube do Livro do Design
• 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

• 2025
  • “The Discreet Charm of a Short-Term Rental Agreement”, Designing History: Documents and the Design Imperative to Immutability, Chris Lee, Set Magins’
  • “On Style Transfer”, Entreprecariat
  • “Politics of Care and Politics of Cruelty”, Entreprecariat
  • “Esiste un confine umano dell’intelligenza?”, a conversation with Francesco D’Isa, Siamomine
  • “Arrivano i barbari”, Grafica Magazine, #3
  • “Tardofuturismo: Il futuro come modo del presente” 1/3, 2/3, Hotpot
  • “Late Futurism: The Future as a Mode of the Present” 1/3, 2/3, Hotpot
  • “Dark Mode: Living with Eye Floaters”, Nocturnalities: Bargaining Beyond Rest, Andrea Knezović and Agata Bar (eds.), Onomatopee
• 2024
  • “Lecture Excerpts: Design and Disillusion, A Starter Pack + Interview”, in Through Witnessing: Threading the Critiquing, Making, Teaching of Design, Nida Abdullah, Chris Lee, Xinyi Li (eds.)
  • “A School Knows No Stopwatch”, Raise Your Voice zine, Baltan Laboratories
  • “Typographic Bodies: From Colonial Dictatorship to Sex Education”, Other Worlds #18
  • “The Servile Mass Society”, The PostScript Anthology (2010-2023), Daphne Dragona & Domenico Quaranta (eds.), Aksioma
  • “One Finds Comrades to Publish”, personal blog
  • “Dal villaggio globale al monolocale”, Il Tascabile
  • “Dear Things”, an interview with Nitzan Cohen, Disegno #37
  • “Against Complexity”, Entreprecariat
  • “Opinioni divergenti”, a conversation with Francesco D’Isa, The Italian Review
  • “Synthetic Chav, Compulsive Synthesis”, exhibition text for Stefano Tamburini, Accelerazione, curated by Matteo Binci and Valerio Mattioli
  • “This Boyfriend Is Distracted”, preface of Superstorm: Design and Politics in the Age of Information by Noemi Biasetton
• 2023
  • Silvio Lorusso Recommends Six Books that Destabilize Design, Scratching the Surface
  • “Other Typographic Worlds: A Partial Recap”, Other Worlds
  • “Des attentes comme réalité”, ÉSAD Pyrénées (translation: Julien Bidoret)
  • “In-Between Media Conference report”, personal blog
  • “Questioning Controlled Consumption in Publishing: Artistic Responses to Tracking, Control, and Access”, in Diid #78
  • “Literally Flexing”, in Fresh Flex Work Force, Alina Lupu (ed.)
• 2022
  • 사용자 조건: 컴퓨터 주체성과 행위, in 투명한 장벽, 플랫폼을 배반하기
  • Il Creative Coding come imperativo economico e come arte, L’indiscreto
  • “6 Theses on the Deprofessionalization of Design” and “No Problem: Design School as Promise” (excerpt), in Who Can Afford to Be Critical? Afonso Matos (ed.)
  • 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
  • “Fiverr: Creative Self-Destruction”, in (How) do we (want to) work (together) (as (socially engaged) designers (students and neighbors)) (in neoliberal times)?, Jesko Fezer, Studio Experimentelles Design, Claudia Banz (eds.)
  • “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
  • “La regola di A G Fronzoni”, Progetto Grafico #35
  • “The Oxymoron of the Academic Zine”, Making Public blog
  • “Hack Thyself”, Volume #56
  • “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, Edited and Translated Publications

• 2024
  • Logo in Real Life, by Michele Galluzzo, Krisis (editor)
  • “Imprenditori o precari?”, Atlas, magazine directed by Raffaele Alberto Ventura
• 2023
  • Le paludi della piattaforma, Geert Lovink, Not – Nero Editions (translated with Silvia Dal Dosso)
• 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
  • Here and Now? Explorations in Urgent Publishing, co-edited with Pia Pol and Miriam Rasch
• 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
  • 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

Selected Talks, Presentations, Lectures, Events

• 2025
  • “Conectados e cansados”, with Leonardo Foletto, Galeria Metrópole, São Paulo, BR
  • “Você não deveria estar trabalhando?”, with Tulio Custódio and Tereza Bettinardi, Sesc Avenida Paulista, São Paulo, BR
  • What Design Can’t Do presentation, Design Futures course, Politecnico di Milano, IT
  • What Design Can’t Do presentation, Winchester School of Art, UK
  • “Too Much Screen, Too Little Space: Digital Maximalism and Existenzminimum”, Transmediale, Berlin, DE
  • The Mechanics of the Mediating Discipline, Loos 6, Amsterdam, NL
• 2024
  • Sopravvivenza creativa e progetto debole, Abadir, Catania, IT
  • “Zoomed Out”, SUPSI, Mendrisio, CH
  • What Design Can’t Do presentation, UFPR, Curitiba, BR
  • What Design Can’t Do presentation (with Olia Lialina), Merz Akademie, City Library, Stuttgart, DE
  • “Learn to Code vs Code to Learn”, 6 pt, Vilnius, LT
  • What Design Can’t Do presentation, Well Read, Lisbon, PT
  • Des(ign)ilusão, conversation with Tereza Bettinardi, Clube do livro do design, online
  • “10 Years of Digital Malaise”, The Digital Wellness Show, Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL
  • “Deepdreaming Willy Wonka: AI Weird as the New Kitsch”, Hidden Layers, Köln International School of Design, DE
  • “A New Dark Age or a Brighter Future?”, with Johanna Mehl and David Voss, Interposed, Mainz, DE
  • “Can Being Creative Be ‘Just a Job’?”, in conversation with Afonso Matos and Ruben Pater, Post-Office, Amsterdam, NL
  • What Design Can’t Do launch, in conversation with Chris Lee, Salotto, New York, US
  • “Design for Complexity: Plural Perspectives on Systems Ambiguity”, with Allison Rowe, Georgina Voss and Matt Webb, Domus Academy, Milano, IT
  • What Design Can’t Do presentation, Parsons School of Design (online)
  • What Design Can’t Do presentation, with Federico Antonini and Emanuele Bonetti, Parco Gallery, Milano, IT
  • Superstorm book launch by Noemi Biasetton, with Michele Galluzzo, Bruno, Venezia, IT
  • What Design Can’t Do discussion with Pierfrancesco Califano, Università Iuav di Venezia, IT
  • “Guilt, Fear, Loss, Ambition”, Manchester School of Art, UK
  • What Design Can’t Do: Book Launch, San Seriffe, Amsterdam, NL
  • Design and Disillusion, Kunsthal Ghent, BE
  • Users, Politics, linkinbio, in conversation with dubravka sekulić, Transmediale, Berlin, DE
• 2023
  • Progetto, Futuri possibili tra utopia e distopia, Università di Firenze, IT
  • Other Typographic Worlds, Delli, Lusófona University, Lisbon, PT
  • On Semi-automation and Cultural Professionalism, d*sign week, Linz, AT
  • What Design Can’t Do: Book Launch, with Clara Balaguer and Extrapractice, Huidenclub, Rotterdam, NL
  • Laboring Images / Images of Labor, FAMU, Prague, CZ
  • Make Together: Fare Domande Folli, Wunderkammer, Ferrara, IT
  • Form Follows Format, Abadir, Catania, IT
  • Technology, Economics, and (Bad) Feelings (seminar organized by Annika Haas), Universität der Künste Berlin, online
  • A roleta do Emprecariado: book launch with Eva Gonçalves and Tereza Bettinardi, Valsa, Lisbon, PT
  • Form Follows Format, Universidade Católica Portuguesa of Porto, online
  • Critical Mass, Critical Mess, Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, PT
  • Digital Middleman (moderator, with Farzin Lotfi-Jam, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Simone C Niquille), Transmediale, Berlin, DE
  • Fresh Flex Work Force – Book Launch, San Seriffe, Amsterdam, NL
• 2022
  • Vulnerability by Design: Bodies, intersectional vulnerabilities, IASPIS, Stockholm, SE
  • Panel Discussion: Collecting and Conserving NFTs as Art and Collectibles, Luma Westbau, Zürich, CH
  • Moving Through Moving Images, Lusófona University, Cinema and Media Department, Lisbon, PT
  • In Great Tempest, Iuav University of Venice, IT
  • “Von hier aus … noch zu bestimmen”, BURG, Halle, DE
  • The Circuit by Hannah Ellis, MAAT Museum, Libon, PT
  • Expectations as Reality: On the Art and Design School, Yale School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut, US
  • La collezione fra impresa e passione, Fondazione CRC, Cuneo, IT, online
• 2021
  • The Elephant in the Device, with Eric Golo Stone, Merz Akademie, Stuttgard, online
  • Welcome to My Thread Talk, with Benjamin Royer and Cade Diehm, The New Design Congress
  • Design in an Identity Crisis podcast, Designers Write, online
  • The Design and The Plan: On Power, MAAT Museum, Lisbon, PT
  • Post-Precarity Autumn Camp: How to survive as an artist?, workshop with Alina Lupu, Hoorn, NL
  • WIZ* Jour Fixe 2 (in dialogue with J. Dakota Brown), Burg Halle, online
  • Work, Resist, Refuse (moderator, with Aaron Benanav, Gargi Bhattacharyya, Rachel O’Dwyer, Suji Yan), Transmediale Broadcast, online
  • Design & Disillusion: Ghosts and Bees, Paris College of Art, online
  • The User Condition #01, Varia, online
  • Design & Disillusion: A Starter Pack, Post-Radical Pedagogy, Pratt Institute, online
• 2020
  • Fault Lines Symposium, KABK, online
  • Career as Rapid Prototyping, keynote, HKB, Bern
  • Home Office: The Work-Work Balance, Robota Center, online
  • Laborious Relationships, with Sebastian Schmieg, Aksioma, online
  • Talking Heads, with Loraine Furter, HEAD Genève
  • Work in Progress, online Q&A
  • Étudier les cultures du numérique, Gaîté Lyrique, Paris, FR
  • Volume #56 Launch, Willem de Kooning, Rotterdam, NL
  • Conversation with Sebastian Schmieg, Panke.Gallery, Berlin, DE
  • Precarious Nights #3, Focus, Arnhem, NL
  • Automate All The Things!, Moderna Galerija, Ljubljiana, SI
• 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

Curated Events and Exhibitions

• 2024
  • Launch of “Automação e Autonomia: Dois Ensaios Sobre Design” by J. Dakota Brown, Delli, Lusófona University, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2023
  • Extinction Internet: Geert Lovink in conversation with Silvio Lorusso, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2021
  • The User Condition #04 (in dialogue with Dave Young), Varia, online
  • The User Condition #03 (in dialogue with Anaëlle Beignon), Varia, online
  • The User Condition #02 (in dialogue with Brendan Howell), Varia, online
• 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)

Exhibitions

• 2025
  • Machina Sapiens, French Ministry of Culture, Paris, FR
• 2024
  • Likes & Laments, Milano, IT
• 2023
  • 24/7 – Arbeit zwischen Sinnstiftung und Entgrenzung, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, AT
• 2022
  • DYOR, Kunsthalle Zürich, CH
  • Curriculum Veto, Mistral, Amsterdam, NL
  • There Is Something Wrong with My Hands, Literaturhaus Liechtenstein, LI
  • Bibliotech, NeMe, Limassol, CY
  • Intelligence Artificielle. Nos reflets dans la machine, Musée de la main, Lausanne, CH
  • Virtual Bodies, Tokyo University of the Arts, JP
  • Tecnocene: Lavorare stanca, DAMSLab, Bologna, IT
  • Memento Minti, MoCDA, Decentraland
• 2021
  • The Struggle Is Real, Greencube Gallery, online
  • Never Shall We Labour, Centre Civic Can Felipa, Barcelona, ES
  • Open Codes. Networked Commons, with Sebastian Schmieg, Nam June Paik Art Center, Seoul, KR
  • Fleeting Media. Publishing Post-Photography, with Sebastian Schmieg, online
• 2020
  • Platform Ghosts, with Sebastian Schmieg, Drugo More, Rijeka, HR
  • Ride Into the Sun, 3rd Industrial Art Biennale, Rijeka, HR
  • Journey into a Living Being – From Social Sculpture to Platform Capitalism, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin, DE
  • Ouvrir le Spectre: Human Services, PAN!, Limoges, FR
  • Algotaylorism, Kunsthalle, Mulhouse, FR
• 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, with Sebastian Schmieg, 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
  • 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 And Seminars

• 2025
  • Zoomed Out, Transmediale, Berlin, DE
• 2024
  • Solvem Probler: A Two-Day Seminar on the Essence of Problems, Design Academy Eindhoven – Information Design Department, NL
• 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
  • 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, Acquisitions

• 2024
  • What Design Can’t Do is included in the ADI Design Index 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
  • 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

• 2020
  • Filling the Gap. Indagini sul panorama del Graphic Design contemporaneo by Valeria Pugliese (co-supervisor), MA in Communication and Design for Publishing, ISIA Urbino
• 2016
  • Amateur. Non-institutional practices between digital archiving and publishing by Davide Giorgetta and Valerio Nicoletti (co-supervisor), MA in Communication and Design for Publishing, ISIA Urbino

Interviews

• 2024
  • Examining the Dust on His Desk, by James Dyer, DAMN #87
• 2023
  • ‘What Design Can’t Do’ unpacks the contradictions of being a designer, by Zohra Kahn, Stir World
• 2022
  • BookCloud: CAPS LOCK with Noemi Biasetton
  • “Não existe nenhuma atividade completamente não-produtiva” by Pedro Caldeira, Shifter
  • Il lavoro non ti ama by Siamo Mine
  • Good Times Bad Times Radio
• 2021
  • “Este italiano inventó el término ’emprecario’: ‘Cada vez vamos a ser más'” by Héctor G. Barnés, El Confidential
  • “Les entrepreneurs de demain sont-ils voués à la précarité?” by Sidonie Sigrist, Welcome to the Jungle
  • “Work shouldn’t happen out of fear” by Paul Walsh, Autonomy blog
• 2020
  • “Tentativas de separar perfis de trabalho e pessoais são artificiais” by Leonardo Neiva, Gama Revista
  • “Silvio Lorusso on Labour, Research, Humour” by Joana Pestana and Max Ryan, Scripted Space
  • “Start-up nation et entreprécariat: «S’il y a besoin de se révolter, c’est maintenant»” by Géraldine Delacroix, Mediapart
  • “Work shouldn’t happen out of fear” by Paul Walsh, Autonomy blog
• 2019
  • “Entreprecariat: We are all entrepreneurs. Nobody is safe” by Filippo Lorenzin, Digicult
• 2018
  • “Sorridere affondando” by Gabriele Ferraresi, Sapiens
• 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

• 2016
  • 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)
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

• 2021-24
  • Co-director of the Center for Other Worlds
• 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

• Everyone an Entrepreneur by Giulio Gonella, Volume
• Entreprécariat: de l’entrepreneuriat à la précarité, les deux faces d’un même modèle by Hubert Guillaud, internetactu.net
• Il paradosso di essere freelance by Antonella di Biase, Vice Italy
• Un’exit strategy dal realismo capitalista by Tiziano Bonini, CheFare

Critical Literature

• 2025
  • Is There an Art of the Working Class?, 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

• Squad: On Corporate Aesthetics and Post-Internet Art
• Harper’s Bazaar: La teoria del caos e il fashion system: un’armonia accidentale
• Metropolis M: What’s worse than silence? – Transmediale 2025
• 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