Silvio Lorusso
Silvio Lorusso (born 1985) is an Italian writer, artist, and designer. His work critically examines design culture, technology, digital platforms, and labor. He is the author of Entreprecariat (2019), a book on entrepreneurialism and precarious labor, and What Design Can’t Do (2023), which explores the limitations of the design profession.
Silvio Lorusso

Dasha Ilina · Public domain
- Name
- Silvio Lorusso
- Born
- 1985
- Birthplace
- Altamura, Italy
- Field
- Contemporary Art, Design, Non-fiction Writing
- Training
- IUAV University of Venice and Politecnico di Bari
- Nationality
- Italy
- Occupation
- writer · university teacher · artist · design historian · designer
- Fields
- literary activity · design · art
- Languages
- Italian
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q133502698 · wikipedia · Silvio Lorusso
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
The documentary record
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Institutions cited
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Not stated by the sources cited: nationality
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Biography
Biography
What Design Can’t Do was nominated among the best design books of 2023 by Fast Company and The Architect's Newspaper.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Silvio Lorusso • Born — 1985 • Birthplace — Altamura, Italy • Field — Contemporary Art, Design, Non-fiction Writing • Training — IUAV University of Venice and Politecnico di Bari • Notable Works — Kickended, Shouldn't You Be Working?, Five Years of Captured Captchas (with Sebastian Schmieg), 56 Broken Kindle Screens (with Sebastian Schmieg • Style — Conceptual artist • Website — https: silviolorusso.com/
Documentary record
Silvio Lorusso (born 1985) is described as a writer, artist and designer in the authority records of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Silvio Lorusso was born in 1985 in Altamura.
Biography
Biography
Lorusso earned a Ph.D. in Design Sciences from Iuav University of Venice and serves as an assistant professor at Universidade Lusófona.
Work
Work
Lorusso's artistic and research practice includes projects such as Kickended and Shouldn't You Be Working?, which comment on digital culture and productivity. Lorusso also created the Post-Digital Publishing Archive, an online archive focused on works of experimental publishing informed by digital technology.
Documentary record
Rotterdam is recorded as a place of activity by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Books
• Paperback edition. Foreword by Geert Lovink. Afterword by Raffaele Alberto Ventura. • Paperback edition.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Silvio Lorusso, revision 1343421742 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Silvio Lorusso's 'Entreprecariat: Everyone is an entrepreneur. Nobody is Safe' (2019)- an interview by Floor van Luijk. Metropolis M.
- 2.Neural. Silvio Lorusso – What Design Can't Do: Essays on Design and Disillusion Neural. 2024-10-16.
- 3.Fuller, Jarrett. The Best Design Books of 2023. Fast Company. 2023-12-26.
- 4.AN collects a bevy of the best architecture-related books published in 2023. The Architect’s Newspaper. 2023-12-22.
- 5.Silvio Lorusso. Universidade Lusófona.
- 6.Google Scholar profile
- 7.Frizzell, Nell. Kickended: the enthralling world of crowdfunding flops. The Guardian. 2014-11-14. 0261-3077.
- 8.Swanson, Ana. Meet the Web site where start-up dreams go to die. The Washington Post. 2015-06-16. 0190-8286.
- 9.Shouldn't you be working? by Silvio Lorusso. www.roehrsboetsch.com.
- 10.Cartwright, James. P-DPA is a user generated archive of developments in digital publishing. It’s Nice That. 2015-04-24.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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