. media culture . hacktivism
book . hacktivism

E. Gabriella Coleman - Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking

E. Gabriella Coleman, Coding Freedom, The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking, Princeton University Press, FLOSS, hacker, hacktivism, Debian, GNU, Linux, conferences, Cory Doctorow, code, E.-Gabriella-Coleman---Coding-Freedom.jpg Princeton University Press, ISBN: 978-0691144610, 264 pages, 2012, English
The whole ecosystem of hacking and FLOSS has rarely been considered by academic research, despite often being recognized as a terrific collective production. It has been considered more as a "tool" and not recognized as an important abstract "laboratory" of labour and freedom. Coleman focuses on hacker communities  ... [ Continue ]


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book . hacktivism . media . net

Matthew Fuller, Andrew Goffey - Evil Media

Matthew Fuller, Andrew Goffey, Evil Media, book, Media Ecologies, communication, media, multimedia, postmodern, information, Matthew-Fuller,-Andrew-Goffey---Evil-Media.jpgThe MIT Press, ISBN: 978 0262017855, 248 pages, 2012, English
The term "multimedia" has sounded obsolete for more than a decade now. This book by Matthew Fuller and Andrew Goffey brings its archaic status into even sharper relief. Here "media" or the strategies of mediating information proliferate almost indefinitely, being mostly digital or networked  ... [ Continue ]


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book . hacktivism . media . software

Alexander R. Galloway - The Interface Effect

Alexander R. Galloway, The Interface Effect, Polity, Jean-Luc Godard, autonomous zones, plug-in, philosophical discourses, videogames, software, interface, signs, abstractions, book, Alexander-R.-Galloway---The-Interface-Effect.jpg Polity, ISBN: 9780745662534, 200 pages, 2012, English Galloway defines interfaces as "action-oriented processes." They have "effects" (thus the title), "as they transform material states and are themselves effects of other things." This theoretical work investigates how such transformations occur and the effects they enable. It starts by discussing the actuality of Manovich's "Language of new media" book  ... [ Continue ]


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book . hacktivism . net

Geert Lovink - Networks Without a Cause: A Critique of Social Media

Geert Lovink, Networks Without a Cause: A Critique of Social Media, Polity, book, ISBN: 9780745649689, organized networks, orgnets, Neural, Geert-Lovink---Networks-Without-a-Cause.jpg Polity, ISBN: 9780745649689, 220 pages, 2012, English Geert Lovink's network theories have regularly found their way into academic publishing over the last decade, during another decade of life for the networks themselves. Here Lovink effectively interweaves his own research with stimuli from the multiple initiatives he has regularly  ... [ Continue ]


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art . hacktivism . media . performance

Oh Bright Coins, keeping Capitalism current

The Electrochemical Currency Exchange Company, Jonathon Keats, the_electrochemical_currency_exchange_company.jpg Jonathon Keats, Managing Director of The Electrochemical Currency Exchange Company, has worked his way easily into regular ‘Wired’ coverage, the foyer of the Rockefeller Building in New York and most recently the murky depths of Far East currency exchange. His latest thought-experiment goes well beyond thinking and into the dark heart of banking. His data  ... [ Continue ]


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book . hacktivism . media . net

edited by Alexei Monroe State of Emergence: The First NSK Citizens' Congress in Berlin

edited by Alexei Monroe State of Emergence: The First NSK Citizens' Congress in Berlin, Plöttner Verlag Gmbh, ISBN: 9783862110483, 2011, 256 pages, English,state_of_emergence.jpg Plöttner Verlag Gmbh, ISBN: 9783862110483, 2011, 256 pages, English Although self-proclaimed states are not a new concept, not even in art, the "NSK State in Time" established by the Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) in 1992, was one of the most consistent and historically remarkable experiment. In fact it came out as a supreme expression of freedom in the beginning of the collapsing ex-Yugoslavia, creating a boundless state and issuing very plausible  ... [ Continue ]


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Howard Rheingold - Net Smart: How to Thrive Online

Howard Rheingold - Net Smart: How to Thrive Online, The MIT Press, ISBN: 9780262017459, 272 pages, 2012, English, net_smart.jpg The MIT Press, ISBN: 9780262017459, 272 pages, 2012, English Howard Rheingold has already proved himself a one-of-a-kind writer when it comes to technology and society. He's not a theorist, nor a classic academic, but a skilled researcher and writer whose approach to technology is factual, analytical and clarifying, all viewed from a social perspective. Here he addresses one of the most underestimated dangers of the internet as a collective tool to grow: the deadly mixture  ... [ Continue ]


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book . hacktivism

Timothy C. Campbell - Improper Life: Technology and Biopolitics from Heidegger to Agamben

Timothy C. Campbell Improper Life: Technology and Biopolitics from Heidegger to Agamben, University Of Minnesota Press, ISBN: 9780816674657, 232 pages, English, 2011improper_life.jpg Univ Of Minnesota Press, ISBN: 9780816674657, 232 pages, English, 2011 In "Improper Life" Campbell develops his thought-provoking philosophical writing around the contrast between biopolitics and its current degeneration, which he terms "thanatopolitics" (politics obsessed by death.) The author looks at instances of this idea in the work of famous recent philosophers like Agamben, Esposito and Sloterdijk, and especially on "apparatus" as analyzed by Heidegger and his  ... [ Continue ]


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book . hacktivism . media

James Gleick - The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood

James Gleick, The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood, Pantheon, 2011,  English, ISBN-13: 978-0375423727, Hardcover: 544 pages, the_information_history_theory_flood.jpg Pantheon, 2011, English, ISBN-13: 978-0375423727, Hardcover: 544 pages This is an excellent history of information theory and science. The quantification and qualification of information is a process here investigated through key historical moments and figures, contextualized through biographical facts and narratives, starting with the amazing mechanisms of the "Talking drums  ... [ Continue ]


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art . hacktivism . media . mobile . performance

CorruptArt in Prague: Occupy The Parliament and the Villas!

CorruptArt in Prague, Czech Republic, ztohoven, David Rath, corrupt_art_ztohoven.jpg While various Occupy movements around the world are conducting events on the streets in front of financial and political institutions, in the Czech Republic preferred sites for activism have come to include parliament house and various infamous villas implicated in corruption cases. Artists recently organized the first ever performance in the local parliament house via a hacked mobile phone SMS  ... [ Continue ]


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art . hacktivism . visual

Subpixel, de-pixeled posters

Subpixel, F.A.T. , fat_subpixel.jpg There is no doubt that every inch of public space is becoming increasingly scrutinized by microscopes intent on examining the maximum potential for attention and revenue. In the throes of an amorphous supply-demand model, which may inadvertently lead to a sanitized visual cosmopolitanism, public space remains a grayzone where visual battles from the top down and bottom up are waged  ... [ Continue ]


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art . hacktivism . net

Facebook ID Card, hyperreal online ID

Facebook ID Card, Tobias Leingruber, facebook_ID_card.jpg Sometimes it seems as if a few IT companies are slowly preparing to rule the world one day. Facebook and Google in particular have a tendency to stretch the boundaries of socially acceptable behaviour. German artist Tobias Leingruber has responded to the on-going privacy breeches by Facebook by creating a Facebook identity card in anticipation of the coming Facebook World Order. The project is  ... [ Continue ]


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book . hacktivism

edited by Angela Plohman, A Blueprint for a Lab of the Future

Baltan Laboratories, ISBN: 9789081583008, 343 pages, a_blueprint_for_a_lab_of_the_future.jpg Baltan Laboratories, ISBN: 9789081583008, 343 pages Grounded on the previous " The Future of the Lab", this new publication expands the topic on a much broader level. This book includes documentation of Baltan Laboratories' first three years of activity, revealing the many projects supported and initiated there. Essays and interviews with various collaborators (focused on the lab concept), and several other texts of different lengths complete  ... [ Continue ]


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book . hacktivism

Peter Lunenfeld, The Secret War Between Downloading and Uploading: Tales of the Computer as Culture Machine

The MIT Press, ISBN-13: 978-0262015479, 219 pages, 2011, English, the_secret_war_between_Downloading_and_Uploading.jpg The MIT Press, ISBN-13: 978-0262015479, 219 pages, 2011, English What kind of medium the computer can be, it is not yet a solved question. Once networked and being able to produce and transmit most of the cultural content we consume, the computer was defined as a "convergent medium", including all previous media in digital form. But now mobile and more miniaturized properties are expanding its scope. Peter Lunenfeld, a reference point for analyzing structural aspects of digital aesthetics and function, is also skillful at creating influential  ... [ Continue ]


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art . hacktivism . interactive . privacy . surveillance

Paranoid Shelter, invisibly boxed

Paranoid Shelter,fabric | ch, chiara ciociola, paranoid_shelter.jpg A high density of monitoring devices crowds the space of the installation "Paranoid Shelter", a project by the architecture research group fabric | ch. Despite the word "shelter" reminding of an atavistic sense of protection given by a closed and protected space, the skeletal appearance of the work is already alienating. The installation space is in fact occupied by three tall posts, dark and imposing, from which  ... [ Continue ]


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book . hacktivism . net

edited by Stefan Sonvilla-Weiss, 
Mashup Cultures


edited by Stefan Sonvilla-Weiss, 
Mashup Cultures
, Springer
, ISBN-13: 978-3709100950
256 pages, 2010, English, mashup_cultures.jpg Springer
, ISBN-13: 978-3709100950
256 pages, 2010, English Participatory strategies involving the collective manipulation of digital content were hampered in the past due to worries about intellectual property rights, but they are increasingly becoming welcomed now that commercial online social networks have begun to understand the inherent recreational potential. Sonvilla-Weiss has stated that he picked the title of this book because in "web developments [it]  ... [ Continue ]


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art . hacktivism . software . visual

Extrafile.org, software art with practical usage

Kim Asendorf, Extrafile, extrafile.jpg Artists have always been fascinated by imperfection. A little failure, a small mistake, an unexpected behaviour can be perceived as more meaningful and intriguing than the perfect artwork. This is even more relevant in the computer world where pushing the breaking point of technology is common practice, as shown by a renewed interest in glitch aesthetics over the past few years. A recent example  ... [ Continue ]


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art . hacktivism . mobile

Phone Story, behind Apple allure

Phone Story, Molleindustria, paolo pedercini, chiara ciociola, phone_story.jpg Phone Storyis a new game by Molleindustria for Android and iPhone (available for Android but already banned by Apple and deleted from the Appstore, because it was charged with violent content and non-compliance with the technical requirements). The player has to cross four stages that represent some of the production steps that provide the high-tech industries worldwide. "Coltan" is the phase in which minerals needed for the  ... [ Continue ]


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art . book . hacktivism . magazine

R. Klanten, A. Mollard, M. Hubner - Behind the Zines: Self-publishing Culture

R. Klanten, A. Mollard, M. Hubner, Behind the Zines: Self-publishing Culture, Die Gestalten Verlag, ISBN-13: 978-3899553369, 240 pages, 2011, English, behind_the_zines.jpg Die Gestalten Verlag, ISBN-13: 978-3899553369, 240 pages, 2011, English If you're stuck with the concept of zines as a product of punk, you'd better check this book and learn how "self-publishing" in print has evolved. A book about magazines has always been a kind of celebration, turning the issues of the "expiring" magazines into history in the pages of a (non-expiring) book. But even more important than the many visuals here are the inspiring interviews that have been  ... [ Continue ]


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art . book . hacktivism

Institute Historian T. F. Peterson (Author), Eric Bender (Contributor) - Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT [Paperback]

Institute Historian T. F. Peterson (Author), Eric Bender (Contributor) - Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT [Paperback], 248 pages, The MIT Press, updated edition edition (March 11, 2011), English, ISBN-10: 0262515849, ISBN-13: 978-0262515849, nightwork.jpg Paperback: 248 pages, The MIT Press; updated edition edition (March 11, 2011), English, ISBN-10: 0262515849, ISBN-13: 978-0262515849 This is a book about hacks and pranks at MIT, compiled by the Institute Historian and published by the MIT Press (actually, it's an updated version from 2003). With these premises one might expect a self-indulgent book... but actually it's not. Using original pictures and documents, the book reveals the inexhaustible creativity of MIT students (who seem to be in a kind of permanent state of intellectual  ... [ Continue ]


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art . hacktivism . surveillance

I-R.A.S.C., wearable surveillance protection

U.R.A. / FILOART, chiara ciociola, IRASC.jpg I-R.A.S.C. is a device that protects against infrared surveillance cameras. It is in fact composed of an elastic wearable band equipped with special LEDs that emit infrared rays that are invisible to the naked eye because their frequency is between 780 and 1 mm. But the reception of the image on the surveillance cameras is amended and a ball of light replaces the face of the person framed. The device  ... [ Continue ]


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art . hacktivism

Copy this drive, real hard disk sharing

Copy this Drive, Nick Briz, chiara ciociola, copy_this_drive.jpg Is baring a hard disk by making its content public still considered an act of provocation? In 2000, starting with the sarcastic idea that "privacy is stupid", the 0100101110101101.ORG group launched the project "Life Sharing", a real-time file sharing system in which the group transmitted online all their daily computer activities. In 2011, almost a decade later, artist Nick Briz has made all the content of his hard  ... [ Continue ]


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Edited by Johannes Grenzfurthner, Günther Friesinger, Daniel Fabry - Of Intercourse and Intracourse, Sexuality, Biomodification and the Techno-Social Sphere

Edited by Johannes Grenzfurthner, Günther Friesinger, Daniel Fabry, 
Of Intercourse and Intracourse, Sexuality, Biomodification and the Techno-Social Sphere, RE/Search Publications, ISBN-13: 978-3902796028, 240 pages, English, of_intercourse_and_intracourse.jpg 
RE/Search Publications, ISBN-13: 978-3902796028, 240 pages, English
This is the third anthology after "Do Androids Sleep with Electric Sheep?" and "Pr0nnovation?: Pornography and Technological Innovation" to expand on and "archive" an edition of the Arse Elektronika festival. The event, which takes place each year in San Francisco, was, initiated and fostered as a conference by Johannes Grenzfurthner. The founder's legacy is very clear in the heterogeneous  ... [ Continue ]


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book . hacktivism . media

Leah Lievrouw, Alternative and Activist New Media

alternative_and_activist_newmedia.jpg Polity Press, 200 pages, 2011, English, ISBN-13: 978-0745641843
Defining new media has always been tricky. Here, the author gives a clear and thorough definition of new media based on three components: the device/artifact which enables the ability to communicate, the communication activity/practice, and the social arrangements and organizational forms created around the artifact and the practice. This is a strong base that, coupled with an explicit reference to  ... [ Continue ]


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hacktivism . media

Occupy George, talking dollars

Occupy George, Chiara Ciociola, occupy_george.jpg Printing on (real) one dollar bills (the ones with George Washington) enjoyable and graphically concrete data concerning the distribution of wealth in the United States: this is the premise of Occupy George, a performance created in the wake of the many growing participatory movements born out of the original "Occupy Wall Street." The notes, constituting medium and message with an incisiveness that  ... [ Continue ]


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Mirko Tobias Schafer, Bastard Culture! How User Participation Transforms Cultural Production

249 pages, Amsterdam University Press, 2011, English, ISBN-13: 978-9089642561, bastard_culture.jpg 249 pages, Amsterdam University Press, 2011, English, ISBN-13: 978-9089642561
Internet has been since the beginning of its commercial diffusion a popular medium, but only recently has there been a rising interest in its own internal social dynamics, including its folklore and how it has radically reshaped the relationship  ... [ Continue ]


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hacktivism . music

Sound Tossing, Artificial Urban Crickets

Sound Tossing,Soundfiti, matteo marangoni, sound_tossing.jpg In the urban landscape it can be hard to distinguish a sign from a trace and sometimes even from a piece of garbage. The global popularity of shoe tossing, the practice of throwing worn out shoes over telephone wires, can be partially attributed to this ambiguity. What does it mean when a pair of shoes are seen hanging overhead? While the motives of shoe-tossers remain unknown, they have inspired  ... [ Continue ]


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art . hacktivism . media . privacy

People Staring at Computers: the discreet gaze of the commodities

Kyle McDonald, People staring at computers, Paolo Pedercini, Apple, Steve Jobs, people_staring_at_computers.jpg Kyle McDonald is well-known for exploring the boundaries of public and private space in our post-privacy world. With his Keytweeter he placed himself under digital surveillance for an entire year, capturing everything he typed with a keylogger and posting in on Twitter - 140 keystrokes at time. His most recent project gives another conceptual twist on spyware. 'People staring at  ... [ Continue ]


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hacktivism . magazine . media

Marshall McLuhan, W. Terrence Gordon - Counterblast: 1954 Facsimile

counterblast_marchall_mcluhan.jpg Gingko Press, Inc, English, ISBN-13: 978-1584234524, 32 pages
McLuhan "zine"?!? This must be the first reaction once exposed to Counterblast. In the early golden era of the mimeograph, which also lead to a wave of science fiction zines in the U.S., the visionary theorist was already experimenting in communicating his own sharp and enlightening ideas. In the year of the McLuhan centennial, Transmediale festival has cooperated with Gingko Press to reprint a facsimile  ... [ Continue ]


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art . hacktivism . music

L.S.D./Sonic Graffiti – Urban Screen Sonifier

L.S.D./Sonic Graffiti, Benjamin Gaulon, Recyclism, L_s_d_Sonic-_Graffiti.jpg Recyclism aka Benjamin Gaulon offers an original and playful reading of video advertisement displays. Competing for attention in our daily lives, plasma, led and lcd screens have become ordinary elements of the urban landscape, delivering familiar corporate propaganda in a technologically updated form. Gaulon employs his L.S.D. (light to sound device) to  ... [ Continue ]


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hacktivism . media . mobile . net

Boskoi, wilderness addiction

Boskoi, Joey van der Bie, Maarten van der Mark, Vincent Vijn, Chiara Ciociola, boskoi.jpg Boskoi is an application for Android mobiles that allows people to create a checklist of geo-localized spontaneous food in urban areas. Created by Joey van der Bie, Maarten van der Mark and Vincent Vijn the application was developed with Ushahidi, an useful open source platform for collecting, displaying and mapping information on mobile devices. Recently it has been tried in Amsterdam where  ... [ Continue ]


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book . hacktivism . net

Douglas Rushkoff - Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age

Douglas Rushkoff, Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age, OR Books, ISBN: 978-1935928157, 140 pages, 2010, English, program_or_be_programmed.jpg OR Books, ISBN: 978-1935928157, 140 pages, 2010, English
In the early days of digital networks there was a set of social conventions, called Netiquette, meant to facilitate interaction over networks (they were even codified in an official Internet Engineering Task Force document: RFC 1855). The time/space coordinates of the new medium (the network) were causing various embarrassing communication problems among online users, so the rules were  ... [ Continue ]


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art . hacktivism

Simulen, funny electric control

Simulen, Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Chiara Ciociola, simulen.jpg The genesis of "Simulen", a work by Congolese artist Jean Katambayi Mukendi exhibited at Pixelache 2011 festival in Helsinki, is very delicate. From the functional point of view it is a prototype for the automatic correction of electricity distribution trouble. The spark that triggered its creation is the absolute anarchy of the electrical infrastructure of the city where the artist lives, Lumbumbashi in  ... [ Continue ]


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book . hacktivism . net

Joss Hands - @ Is For Activism: Dissent, Resistance And Rebellion In A Digital Culture

Joss Hands, @ Is For Activism: Dissent, Resistance And Rebellion In A Digital Culture, Pluto Press, ISBN: 978-0745327006, 2011, English, 224 pages, @_is_for_activism_joss_hands.jpg Pluto Press, ISBN: 978-0745327006, 2011, English, 224 pages
After all the myths about the magical use of digital networks for political reasons, including the north African uprisings, and the consequent hype, it's healthy to read a book focusing on giving context and perspective to practices. Hands feels it a necessity to question what Slavoj Zizek calls "interpassivity", or the illusion of doing something (like the popular act of signing online petitions) which don't really affect  ... [ Continue ]


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art . hacktivism . media . net

FoodMatch, surfing the fridges

FoodMatch, Secret Cooks Club of Singapore, food_match_Secret_Cooks_Club.jpg The single portions of food at the supermarket are a strange business entity. The skimpy, perfect packaging directly links with the little windows of the huge buildings of one-room flats that are filling up all the big cities. The quantity of food inside them is always slightly more than necessary, so  ... [ Continue ]


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. Sponsor
Sight and Sound, International Festival art and technology, Eastern Bloc, Montreal, Banniere_neural.jpg

. project
Sonic Genoma
Wicked Style
nordiC (Dissonanze)
Virtual Light (1995)
Internet Underground Guide (1995) Suoni Futuri Digitali (2000)
Tecnologie di Liberazione (2001)
Resistant Maps (2006)
. colophon
editor in chief:
Alessandro Ludovico

assistant editor:
Aurelio Cianciotta Mendizza

contributors:
Josephine Bosma
Ylenia Cafaro
Vito Campanelli
Valentina Culatti
Michael Dieter
Daphne Dragona
Matteo Marangoni
Rachel O' Dwyer
Paolo Pedercini
Paul Prudence
Benedetta Sabatini

production and promotion:
Chiara Ciociola

infrastructure design
and consulting:

Paolo Cirio

translations:
Roberto Orsini
Giuseppe Santoiemma

technical consulting:
Paolo Mangraviti
. extra services