Curriculum Vitae
Marco Deseriis
Education
B.A: Degree in Literature and Philosophy, University “La Sapienza” of Rome (Magna Cum
Laude), 1996.
Ph.D.: Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University, January 2011. Dissertation
defense committee: Alexander R. Galloway, Allen Feldman, McKenzie Wark, Gabriella
Coleman, and Jodi Dean.
Professional Appointments
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Assistant Professor in the Program in Media and Screen Studies, Northeastern University,
Fall 2012-current.
Postdoctoral Fellow at Eugene Lang College The New School, 2011-12.
Spoken Languages
Italian (native); English (fluent); Spanish (basic).
Professional Affiliations
National Communication Association (2012-2014).
International Communication Association (2013-curent).
Grants & Fellowships
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Visiting Scholar, Quadrant initiative, University of Minnesota Press, Fall 2012.
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Transnational Media, Eugene Lang The New School, 20112012.
Intel Experience Insights Lab, Essay on Technology and Social Participation, 2010.
NYU Council for Media and Culture, Radars & Fences conferences, 2008-2010.
Publications
Books
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Deseriis, M. (2015) Improper Names: Collective Pseudonyms from the Luddites to
Anonymous. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
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Deseriis, M. and Marano, G. (2008) Net.Art: L’arte della Connessione. Milano: Shake.
First edition, 2003.
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Deseriis, M. and Quaranta, D. (2006) Connessioni Leggendarie: Net Art, 1995-2005.
Milano: ReadyMade.
Refereed Journals
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Deseriis, M. On the Symbolic Power of Shared Pseudonyms. Seachange journal. Naming |
Nommer (2015): 51-62. (Invited).
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Deseriis, M. The People’s Mic as a Medium in Its Own Right: A Pharmacological
Reading. Journal of Critical Communication/Cultural Studies 11, no. 1 (2014): 42-51. doi:
10.1080/14791420.2013.827349.
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---. Is Anonymous a New Form of Luddism? A Comparative Analysis of Industrial
Machine-Breaking, Computer Hacking, and Related Rhetorical Strategies. Radical History
Review 117 (Fall 2013): 33-48. doi 10.1215/01636545-2210437.
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---. Irony and the Politics of Composition in the Philosophy of Franco “Bifo” Berardi.
Theory & Event 15, no. 4 (December 2012). doi: 10.1353/tae.2012.0077.
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---. Improper Names: Collective Pseudonyms and Multiple-Use Names as Minor
Processes of Subjectivation. Subjectivity 5, no. 1 (July 2012): 140-160.
doi:10.1057/sub.2012.3.
•
---. The General, the Watchman and the Engineer of Control: The Relationship between
Cooperation, Communication, and Command in the Society of Control. Journal of
Communication
Inquiry
35,
no.
4
(October
2011):
387-394.
doi: 10.1177/0196859911415677.
Other Journals
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Behrens, J. Kistner, A., Nitsche, A., Swierczek, B., and Deseriis, M., Liquid Democracy,
Its Chanllenges and Its Forebears. Open Democracy. October 9, 2015. Web.
http://www.opendemocracy.net.
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Deseriis, M. Podemos’ Dilemma and Why Leadership Still Matters. Open Democracy.
July 13, 2015. Web. http://www.opendemocracy.net.
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Deseriis, M. and Dean, J. A Movement Without Demands? Possible Futures. January 3,
2012. Web. www.possible-futures.org/2012/01/03/a-movement-without-demands.
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Dean, J. and Deseriis, M. Occupy Wall Street: Marco Deseriis in Conversation with Jodi
Dean. Arena. No. 115 (December 2011-January 2012): 17-20.
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Holmes, B. and Deseriis, M. (2009) Concerning Art and Social Change. Mute: Culture
and Politics after the Net. Vol. 2 No. 12 (June 2009): 44-57.
Book Chapters
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Deseriis, M. The Politics of Fabrication and the Three Orders of the Fake. In Culture
Jamming: Activism and the Art of Popular Intervention. Eds. Marilyn DeLaure and Moritz
Fink. Forthcoming, 2016.
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Deseriis, M. (2012) Italienischer Cyberpunk: Die Entstehung einer Radikalen Subkultur
(Italian Cyberpunk: The Making of a Radical Subculture). In Vergessene Zukunft:
Radikale Netzkulturen in Europa. Eds. Clemens Apprich and Felix Stalder. Bielefeld:
Transcript. 137-143.
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---. (2011) Lots of Money Because I am Many:” The Luther Blissett Project and the
Multiple-Use Name Strategy. In Cultural Activism: Practices, Dilemmas and Possibilities,
Thamyris/Intersecting: Place Sex and Race, Vol. 21. Ed. Begum O. Firat and Aylin
Kuryel. Amsterdam: Rodopi. 65-93.
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---. (2010) Global Networked Hacktivism. In Art and Activism in the Age of Globalization.
Ed. K. Vanhaesebrouck, L. De Cauter, and R. De Roo. Amsterdam: NAi Publishers. 250263.
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---. (2010) Improper Names, Hauntings of the Unnamed: A 20-moves Minifesto in
Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus. In Critical Strategies
in Art and Media. Ed. Konrad Becker and Jim Fleming. New York: Autonomedia. 135141.
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---. (2009) No End In Sight: Networked Art as a Participatory form of Storytelling. In
Networked: A (networked_book) about (networked_art). Eds. E. Navas, J. Greene, H.
Thorington. Web. <http://deseriis.networkedbook.org>.
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---. (2008) Text Virus. In Software Studies: A Lexicon. Ed. Matthew Fuller. Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press. 250-255.
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---. (2006) Net.Art, Un’esperienza Conclusa? (Net.Art, The End of an Experience?) In
L’Arte nell’Era della Producibilità Digitale. Ed. A. Caronia and A. Balzola. Milano:
Mimesis.
Book Reviews
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Deseriis M. Excommunication by Alexander Galloway, Eugene Thacker, and McKenzie
Wark. Culture Machine 15 (Spring 2015): 1-11.
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---. Comparative Textual Media: Transforming the Humanities in the Postprint Era, eds.
N. Katherine Hayles and Jessica Pressman. Reviews in Cultural Theory 5, no. 2 (2014):
3
12-17.
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---. (2008) Art and/or Revolution. Mute. Culture and Politics after the Net.
<http://www.metamute.org/en/content/art_and_or_revolution>
Publications Under Review
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Deseriis, M. Hacktivism: On the Use of Botnets in Cyberattacks. Theory, Culture &
Society (accepted with minor revisions).
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---. The Hacktivist Transduction, University of Minnesota Press (Forerunners series).
Under review.
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---. Technopopulism: The Emergence of a Discursive Formation. Special Issue on Digital
Activism of TripleC: Communication, Capitalism and Critique (abstract accepted).
Translations
From 2001 to 2005, Deseriis worked as an editor for the Italian publishing house Fandango and as
a freelance translator from English to Italian. He translated four books:
• Kevin Mitnick, L’arte dell’intrusione (The Art of Intrusion), Feltrinelli, 2006.
• McKenzie Wark, Un Manifesto Hacker (A Hacker Manifesto), Feltrinelli, 2005.
• John Pilger, Agende Nascoste (Hidden Agendas), Fandango, 2003.
• Geert Lovink, Internet Non è il Paradiso (My First Recession), Apogeo, 2003.
Teaching experience
Undergraduate courses taught at Northeastern:
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Introduction to Digital Media Culture (Spring 2016)
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Media, Culture & Society (Spring 2016)
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Media and Identity (online, Fall 2015)
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Media and Democracy (Fall 2015)
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Media, Culture & Society (2 sections, Spring 2015)
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Digital Media Culture (Fall 2014)
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Media, Culture & Society (Fall 2014)
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Media and Identity (Fall 2013)
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Media and Democracy (Spring 2013)
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New Media Research Studio (Spring 2013)
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Social Media and Participatory Culture: Theory & Research (Fall 2012).
Undergraduate courses taught at Eugene Lang The New School:
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Tactical Media and Internet Art (Spring 2012).
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Mediated Subjectivity (Fall 2011).
Graduate courses taught in the Department of Film and Media Studies at Hunter College:
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Culture Jamming (Spring 2011).
Undergraduate courses taught in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New
York University:
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New Media Research Studio (Fall 2010; Spring 2011).
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Introduction to Digital Media (Fall 2009).
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Introduction to Human Communication and Culture (Fall 2007; Fall 2008).
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Copyright, Commerce, and Culture (Spring 2007; Marker/Grader, Prof. Siva
Vaidhyanathan).
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History of Communication (Spring 2006; Teaching Assistant, Prof. Terence Moran).
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Introduction to Media Studies (Fall 2005 and Fall 2006; Teaching Assistant, Prof. Ted
Magder).
Additional teaching experience (2004-2005):
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Instructor of New Media Design, Academy of Arts and New Technologies, Rome, Italy.
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Teaching Assistant in Computer-Based Communication (Prof. Arturo Di Corinto),
Department of Communication Sciences, University “La Sapienza,” Rome, Italy.
Selected Talks
Untitled talks indicate participation in panel discussions as well as talks given before 2006:
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Two Variants of Technopopulism: The Leaderless and the Leaderist, Cyberparty
Conference, King’s College, London, May 13, 2016.
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Improper Names: The Politics of Shared Pseudonyms from the Luddites to Anonymous.
Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths University of London, May 11, 2016. Invited.
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Anonymity as Transduction, Anonymity in Authorship and Activism, McGill University,
September 23, 2015. Keynote.
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Constituent Networks: The Dream of Internet Democracy and the Question of Leadership
in the Pirate Parties and the M5S, Radical Democracy conference, The New School, New
York, April 10, 2015.
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The Transductive Botnet: A Theory and History of Hacktivist DDoS Attacks,
International Communication Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 22, 2015.
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Networked Populisms: The Rise of the Net Parties and the Case of the M5S, International
Communication Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 22, 2015.
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(With Alessandra Renzi). Nonhuman Solidarities: The Impact of Crowdsourcing on Media
Activism and Hacktivism, Digital Labor 2.0 conference, The New School, New York,
November 2014.
Networked Populisms: The Rise of the Net Parties and the Case of the M5S, Whose
Voice? conference, October 2014, Baruch College, CUNY, New York.
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Theory and Genealogy of the Improper Name, No Space, Brooklyn, NY, March 2014.
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Culture Jamming in Context: Trajectories, Problems and Possibilities, National
Communication Association, Washington D.C., November 2013.
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An Introduction to Alberto Grifi’s Work, Invited talk, e-flux, New York, June 2013.
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Heterarchies of the Common(s): The Quest for Democracy in Anonymous, Occupy and
Wikipedia. Cultural Studies Association, Chicago, May 2013.
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The People’s Mic as a Medium in Its Own Right. National Communication Association,
Orlando, November 2012.
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Improper Names: Collective Pseudonyms from the Luddites to Anonymous, Invited talk,
Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, November 2012.
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Panel on Anonymous. International Symposium of Electronic Arts, September 2012.
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Panel on Occupy Wall Street (chair and panelist), Critical Themes in Media Studies, The
New School, April 2012.
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Is Anonymous a New Form of Luddism? Marxism & New Media Conference, Duke
University, January 2012.
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(With Luis-Moreno Caballud). A Demandless Movement? From the Spanish 15-M to
OWS, Direct Action and the Politics of the Commons, Occupy Wall Street Teach-In, The
New School, October 2011.
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In defense of Irony: The Nomadic, Transversal Philosophy of Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi. VIII
Annual Social Theory Forum: Italian Social Theory from Antonio Gramsci to Giorgio
Agamben, University of Massachusetts, Boston, April 2011.
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Tactics & Practice: New Media Drivers, Seminar in New Media Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia,
June 2010.
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Black Square on Red Square: A reexamination of Irwin’s Retroprinciple. (Re)making
(Re)presentations, CUNY Graduate Student Conference, May 2010.
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Improperly Named, Upgrade New York, Eyebeam, New York, May 2010.
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Improper Names: Collective Pseudonyms as Gestures of Radical Subtraction. Cultural
Studies Association, University of California Berkeley, March 2010.
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The Faker as Producer: The Politics of Fabrication and the Three Orders of the Fake. Neil
Postman Graduate Conference, New York University, NY, October 2009.
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Culture Jamming as Mythmaking: How Power Narratives are Transformed Into Tools for
Storytelling, Cultural Studies Association, Kansas City, MO, April 2009.
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Tomorrow Now, New Media Art Conference, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venezia,
Italy, December 2007.
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Lots of Money Because I Am Many: The Luther Blissett Project and Radical Mythmaking
Practices in Italy (1994-2004).” Human Rights and Media Conference II, Harvard
University, Cambridge, Mass., April 2007.
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Human Rights and Media Conference, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 2006
(Representing The Yes Men).
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TECHNE, New Media Art Exhibition and Lecture Series, Spazio Oberdan, Milano, Italy,
2005.
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The War of the Worlds, Art & Activism Conference, New York University, NY, 2005.
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Sintesi Electronic Arts Festival, Napoli, Italy, 2004.
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Free Bitflows, Media Activism and Free Culture Conference, Vienna, Austria, 2004.
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“What is Net.Art?,” Symposium, 50th Venice Biennale, Venezia, Italy, 2003.
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Libri in Campo, Book Fair, Roma, Italy, 2003.
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RIXC Media Architecture, Riga, Latvia, 2003 (Representing 0100101110101101.ORG).
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World-Information, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2003 (Representing 0100101110101101.ORG).
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Read Me!, Software Art Festival, Moscow, Russia, 2002 (Representing The Yes Men).
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Transmediale, Berlin, Germany, 2002 (Representing The Yes Men).
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TILT, Tactical Media Festival, Sydney, Australia, 2001.
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Tenacity, New Media Art Festival, Shedalle, Zurich, Switzerland, 2000.
Service to the Field of Media Studies
Referee for ICA 2014 and 2015, Subjectivity (Palgrave), Theory & Event (John Hopkins
University Press), and Constellations.
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Net.Art and Media Activism
From the late 1990s to the late 2000s, Deseriis has collaborated with various groups and
collectives working at the intersection of art, media, and activism. What follows is a selected list
of collaborations:
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Member of the Not an Alternative collective, Programming of TheChangeYouWanttoSee
Gallery, Brooklyn, 2006-2010.
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With The Yes Men, Yes Bush Can!, Fake Presidential Bus Tour, October 2004.
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With Eva and Franco Mattes, Nikeground, Urban Performance, Vienna, 2003
www.0100101110101101.org/home/nikeground/index.html.
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With Francesca da Rimini, Acid Test, Multimedia Installation, Lehmbruck Museum,
Duisburg, Germany, 1999.
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With Francesca da Rimini and others, Los Dias Y Las Noches de Los Muertos, Hypertext
multilinear narrative, 1998-2000. www.thing.net/~dollyoko/LOSDIAS/INDEX.HTML.
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With Giuseppe Marano, The Thing Italy, Italian node of an international network
(thing.net) dedicated to Internet art and activism, 1998-2004. Now offline.
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With Luther Blissett Project, Luther Blissett, Multiple-Use Name, Rome 1995-1996/
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With AvaNa BBS collective, AvaNa BBS, Bulletin Board System dedicated to Internet
activism, 1995-98.
Curatorial Work
Although Deseriis is not a professional curator, he has programmed and co-curated a few
academic conferences and festivals. What follows is a complete list of events:
• The Digital Legacies of The Avant-Garde, The New School-American University of Paris,
New York-Paris, April 2012 (organizer).
• Re:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus, Eyebeam, New York, June 2010 (co-curator).
• Radars & Fences: When the Paradigms of Discipline and Control Collide, New York
University, 2008-2010 (curator and co-curator).
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The Influencers, Festival of Art, Culture Jammig and Radical Entertainment, CCCB,
Barcelona, 2006-2010 (advisory board).
• Vote Early Vote Often: A Weekend of Arts in Action, TheChangeYouWanttoSee Gallery,
New York, October 2008 (curator).
• Netarts.org Grand Prize, Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts of Tokyo, 2006 (selection
committee).
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• Connessioni Leggendarie: Net.Art 1995-2005, Net.Art Exhibition, Mediateca di Santa
Teresa, Milano, Italy, 2005 (Co-curator and catalog co-author).
• Digital-Is-Not-Analog, Net Art Festival, Bologna and Campobasso, Italy, 2000-2002
(advisory board).
• OFF, Overdose Fiction Festival, Forte Prenestino, Rome, Italy, 1997-1999 (co-curator).
Journalistic Experience
Beginning in the mid-1990s, Deseriis began contributing articles to several Italian national
newspapers, magazines, and news sites, specializing eventually in the social, artistic, and political
uses of new media:
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1998-2010. Repubblica.it (Contributor).
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2001-2006. D – La Repubblica delle Donne (Contributor).
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2002-2005. Musica! e altro (Contributor).
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2000-2001. Rai Smartweb (Project manager, editor and contributor).
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1995-1998. L’Unità (Contributor and news editor).
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1996-1998. Radio Città Futura (Reporter and anchorperson).
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