Maria Gabriella Astolfo (project: Ready? Set … Go!) was born in 1986 in a little town not far from Venice. After obtaining her Diploma at a Liceo Linguistico (foreign languages high school), she studied Industrial Design at IUAV University of Venice. She gained her first degree with a thesis project about a book for children, and is now in her first year at IUAV’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme. In 2007 she did a 3-month internship with a design studio near Treviso, north-east Italy, focusing on communication and graphic design.
Silvia Basso (project: Cinomadic), born in Italy in 1985, took her first degree at the Academy of Fine Arts, Florence. She collaborated in Fabbrica Europa, a festival of theatre, music, and art in Florence, and in 2007 participated in Outside Project, a study programme at the Outside Experimental Art Centre, Belgrade. She is now in her first year at IUAV University of Venice’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme.
basso[dot]silvia1[at]gmail[dot]com
Francesco Belloli (project: Venicelive), born in Vicenza in 1985, took his first degree in Architectural Science at IUAV University of Venice in 2007. During his architectural studies he did a 4-month internship with an architecture studio in Vicenza. He then worked for a year at Diesel as graphic designer (trade and retail marketing). He is now in his first year of IUAV’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme. He also works as freelance graphic designer in his hometown.
Chiara Bertolin (project: Expiry Date), born in Italy in 1985, studied art in high school and in 2007 gained her first degree in Industrial Design at IUAV University of Venice. She is now in her last year of IUAV’s Product Design graduate programme.
chiara_bertolin[at]hotmail[dot]it
Aurora Biancardi (project: Piscator) was born in 1985 and brought up in the countryside near Modena. She studied graphic design at ISIA, the Higher Institute of Design (Urbino), spending two semesters in Germany, in the Fachhochschule of Augsburg. After attending a workshop held in Italian, she decided to return to Italy and is currently in the second year of IUAV University of Venice’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme. She has collaborated with different communication agencies, including Studio Lola (Rome), Chialab (Bologna) and Heads (Treviso). Her undergraduate thesis (ArTypodia) was selected by the Italian Graphic Design Association (AIAP) as one of 2007’s best graphic design projects in Italy. She likes using different visual languages, including photography, illustration and typography. She speaks English and German, and enjoys running and walking barefoot.
aurora.biancardi[at]gmail[dot]com www.aurorabiancardi.com
Laura Bordin (project: Spook) took her first degree in Visual and Performing Arts at IUAV University of Venice, where her a thesis concerned Tim Stark and David Mamet’s Riflessioni sulla recitazione [Reflections on Acting]. In 2007 she also took four Visual Communcation courses on IUAV’s Industrial Design programme, and is now in her final year of IUAV’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme. Her main current interests are events organization and associated graphics, and in 2007 she co-organized Teach Me 4, Venice’s Festival of Visual Communication. In the summer of 2008, as a member of Random Clapping, a group of IUAV interaction design students, she presented Audio-Visual Connections, a project she designed with Davide Cocchi, Benito Condemi de Felice and Pamela Moscarda, at the MediaMediterranea exhibition in Pola, Croatia.
laurabordin[at]gmail[dot]com
Silvia Boscolo (project: Ready? Set … Go!) was born in Italy in 1985. She obtained her Diploma at Venice’s Liceo Artistico (arts high school) before studying urban planning for a year. She then studied Industrial Design at IUAV University of Venice, where she gained her first degree, and is now in her first year of IUAV’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme. In 2007, during a 3-month internship, she collaborated with the Municipality of Treviso on restyling their website.
silvia[dot]boscolo[at]live[dot]it
Giuseppe Burdo (project: Instant Carnival) was born in Terlizzi, near Bari, in 1985. After gaining a Diploma in Electronics and Telecommunications, he moved to Ferrara University to study Communication Technologies, gaining his undergraduate degree with an experimental thesis on haptic interaction in virtual environments. Meanwhile he worked in Milan as a multimedia content manager for a communication agency and in Lucca as product designer for Sca Hygiene Products. He now lives in Venice, in his first year of IUAV University’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme.
giuseppe[dot]burdo[at]gmail[dot]com
Matteo Catacchio (project: Instant Carnival) was born in Bari in 1986. He obtained his Diploma at his scientific high school. In the Architecture Faculty of the Politecnico di Bari he took first degree in Industrial Design with a thesis on a corporate identity system for Bari’s University Museum of Photography. At the same time, to develop his interest in photography, he attended the photography workshops of Mario Cresci and Giovanni Chiaramonte. He is now attending IUAV University of Venice’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme.
mattakkios[at]hotmail[dot]com
Daniele Condello (project: Expiry Date)
Giuseppe Cosmai (project: Dérive), born in Bari in 1982, has lived in Venice since 2001. He took his first degree in Industrial Design at IUAV University of Venice in 2004, then studied Architectural Sciences there until 2006. He is now in his final year of IUAV University of Venice’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme. He was an intern at Visual Comunicazione, Venice, and consumer consultant at Vodafone Italia, Padua. He now freelances in web development, audio/video management and interaction design projects.
c0ke[at]extractum[dot]net www.extractum.net/c0ke
Valeria Donati (project: Dérive) graduated in Industrial Design from La Sapienza University of Rome in 2007. She moved to Venice to study Visual and Multimedia Design at IUAV University, where she became passionate about interaction design, in which she is currently specializing. She was an intern as graphic designer at Studio Ruggieri Poggi and collaborated with Factory La Sapienza Design in Rome. Valeria also attended Universidade Lusiada in Lisbon as an exchange student. She won the Adobe Achievement Awards in the mobile category (with Maria Tasca and Valentina Venza), New York, 2008. She keeps up-to-date about new media, and aims to improve the quality of her work by exploring new techniques and visual styles.
valeria[at]corricorri[dot]net www.corricorri.net
Alessandra Ferragina (project: Instant Carnival)
Alessandro Filippi (project: Piscator) was born in Venice in 1983, attended high school there, and in 2007 took his first degree, in Visual Arts and Theatre, at IUAV University of Venice. He is now in the first year of IUAV’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme. For many years interested in graphic and interaction design he has since 2001 designed and implemented websites for companies and art projects in XHTML, CSS and Flash ActionScript 2.0 and 3.0; he uses 3D Studio MAX and V-Ray for photo-realistic rendering, and is familiar with Adobe’s Design Suite CS3 and Audition. Through his hobby, digital photography, he has developed expertise in reflex cameras and raw image formats, and his interest in electronic music has involved him in mastering and mixing for local groups. He was twice a finalist in the Samsung Young Design Award, coming 10th in 2007 and 3rd in 2008.
alefilippi83[at]alice[dot]it
Suzana Laub (project: Cinomadic) graduated in Architecture (1992) at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and went to Germany (1992-3) for a student exchange programme by IAESTE (International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience). She obtained her masters degree in Marketing and Management (2004) at the FGV (Getulio Vargas Foundation), Sao Paulo. She has been worked as a graphic designer since 1994, taking part in projects including corporate identity, institutional communication, stationary, catalogues, calendars and editorial design. She joined the design team of the publishing houses Martins Fontes (1995) and Atica (1997), becoming the Art Director of Atica’s Children and Youth Literature Department and winning several prizes. In 2000 three of her book covers were classified for the exhibition “Ases da capa” in MIS (Museum of Imageand Sound) in Sao Paulo and joined the museum’s permanent collection.
To increase her design knowledge and expand her career possibilities, she moved to Italy where she won a PhD scholarship in IUAV University of Venice’s Product and Communication Design PhD programme (2004-05). There she became very enthusiastic about interaction design, which greatly and positively influenced her PhD thesis. Her thesis project, The interaction design of food packaging, concerns user interaction, packaging usability, functionality, performance, new technologies and environmental issues.
She is an enthusiastic traveller, interested in other cultures and ways of life; she loves cinema, photography and illustration, meeting friends, dancing, listening to music, cooking, swimming and just living life.
suzanalaub[at]hotmail[dot]com.
Roberto Milazzi (project: Venicelive) was born in Padua and in 2005 gained his graduate degree in Architecture at IUAV University of Venice with his thesis The Physical Navigation of the Infosphere: The Rimini Trade Fair. An early internet enthusiast, in 1995 he wrote with Andrea Visentini the chapter on HTML in one of the first Italian books on the subject, Corrado Petrucco’s Internet, guida per i comuni mortali [The Internet: A Guide for Ordinary Mortals] and in 2000 was a founding member of the Italian chapter of ISOC, the Internet Society. As a founding member of ZonAnomala, a cultural association sponsored by IUAV, he took part in the urban exploration of Venice’s mainland, MS3_H24, illustrated in the catalogue of the 2001 Venice Biennale. He has also written articles and reviews for italian computer magazines CG and Applicando, and in English for Caedroia, the journal of mazes and labyrinths.
After a five years as a freelance graphic designer and a two-year working experience in the administrative staff (admissions) of IUAV’s undergraduate programme in Geographical Information Systems he is now in his final year at IUAV’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme, specialising in interaction design. In 2007 he was a finalist in the ideas competition Inheriting the Past: Tradition, Translation, Betrayal, Innovation promoted by the Fondazione Cini, Venice. His interests span from anthropology and iconology to ICT and e-learning. He enjoys exploring and storytelling. milazzi[at]gmail[dot]com
Alberto Moro (project: Venicelive) was born in Treviso, near Venice, in 1981. He took his first degree in Information Engineering at Padua University of Padua with a thesis which realized a web portal to recognize vowels using text-to-speech and voice recognition technologies. His interest in web design began in 2004, when he started to collaborate with a web agency near Treviso and learnt XHTML, CSS, PHP, SQL and Flash. He loves playing music of all kinds, in Italy and abroad. He is now in his first year of IUAV University of Venice’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme. He has worked for TSW srl in Treviso and now works as a freelance graphic designer and web programming.
Giulia Orlando (project: Expiry Date) was born in Italy in 1984. She studied Art at high school, then took a one-year course in Industrial Colour Design in Nove, Vicenza, where in 2003 she obtained the diploma of Colour Engineer in Industrial Design. In 2007 she gained her undergraduate degree in Industrial Design at IUAV University of Venice, and is now in her final year of IUAV’s graduate programme in Product Design.
giulia_orlando[at]hotmail[dot]it
Ivan Provenzale (project: Spook) was born in Siena in 1982, and gained his undergraduate degree in Communication Technologies at Siena University. His thesis on the redesign of a flight instrument was continued during his internship at DeepBlue consultancy based in Rome: he worked in the Human Factors team of the Mediterranean Free Flight project led by ENAV, the Italian Air Traffic Control agency. He then took a 1-year Masters in Ambient Interaction Design at Siena University; his group project participated in the Siena Design Project 2006. In 2009 he expects his graduate degree in Visual and Multimedia Design at IUAV University of Venice. He was an intern at area/code, the New York-based crossmedia game design company, and is now writing his thesis on the design of a pervasive game in Venice.
ivanprovenzale[at]gmail[dot]com blog
Marco Righetto (project: Piscator) attended the Liceo Brocchi, a high school in Bassano del Grappa, Veneto, strongly connected to the Europian Union; in 2004 he was an Italian member of the Model European Parlament (MEP). He gained his undergraduate degree cum laude in Media and Communication at Padua University, and published his preithesis essay (with Nicola Negrin and Francesco Rossetto) on the Lombardy Institute of Journalists. An enthusiastic video-maker, he has attended workshops with Mike Mills and PES, and shot a mini-documentary shown at the 11th Venice Biennale of Architecture, 2008, for CheckIn Architecture. Since October 2007 he has attended IUAV University of Venice’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme, specialising in interaction design. From February 2009 he will spend six months as an Erasmus student at EINA, Barcelona’s art and design school. His motto: Share, work and keep cool.
marco[dot]righetto[at]gmail[dot]com
Erika Rossi (project: Ready? Set … Go!), born in Italy in 1986, obtained her Diploma at the Institute of Arts in Ferrara. She then studied Industrial Design at IUAV University of Venice, gaining her first degree in 2008, and is now in her first year of IUAV’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme, specialising in interaction design. In 2007 she attended a three-month internship in the communication agency Mollusco e Balena in Bologna, and continues to collaborate with this studio on graphic projects such as logos, brochures, and website graphics. Her main interests are illustration, new media, graphic and web design.
lonza86[at]libero[dot]it
Maria Tasca (project: Dérive) graduated in Design of Communication at the Politecnico di Milano. She is now in her final year of IUAV’s Visual and Multimedia Design graduate programme. She has worked for Fastweb and NextMediaLab and developed websites as a freelancer. She won the Adobe Achievement Awards in the mobile category (with Valeria Donati and Valentina Venza), New York, 2008.
Maria Chiara Toncich (project: Cinomadic) was born Italy in 1982. She studied Painting and New Art Technologies at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts, and as an Erasmus student at the Berlin’s University of the Arts (UDK).
chiaratoncich[at]gmail[dot]com, www.emsiti.net.
Valentina Venza (project: Spook) was born in Brescia in 1984 where she studied art in high school. Her interest in web design began in 1999 when she built her first website (www.ellione.it), learning HTML, PHP and some Flash ActionScript. She graduated in Communication Design at the Politecnico di Milano in 2007. She now works at WorkOnWeb, a graphic studio in Brescia, as a graphic designer and web programmer. She won the Adobe Achievement Awards in the mobile category (with Valeria Donati and Maria Tasca), New York, 2008.
Kui Wang (project: Instant Carnival) was born in Nanjing, China in 1984. He gained his undergraduate degree in Industrial Design at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He is now in his final year of IUAV University of Venice’s Product Design graduate programme.
marskui[at]gmail[dot]com