[DANK TALKS] Valentina Tanni: Antimachines. Disrespecting technology
The talk draws on the book Antimacchine. Mancare di rispetto alla tecnologia (Einaudi, Turin, 2025). Through a selection of case studies and theoretical references, the essay explores how artists, hackers, activists, and ordinary users engage with technology in unexpected, radical, and emancipatory ways. Creative misuse and deliberate error are seen as forms of resistance to the power structures embedded in digital systems.
Valentina Tanni is an art historian, curator, and lecturer based in Rome, Italy. Her research investigates the intersections between art and technology, with a special focus on internet culture. She teaches Meme Culture and Aesthetics, Digital Media Culture, and Introduction to Visual Culture at John Cabot University in Rome. In the past, she has taught at La Sapienza University of Rome, the Polytechnic University of Milan, and NABA | New Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and Milan.
She is the author of: Random. Navigando contro mano, alla scoperta dell’arte in rete (Link editions, 2011), Memestetica. Il settembre eterno dell’arte (Nero, 2020), Exit Reality. Vaporwave, backrooms, weirdcore e altri paesaggi oltre la soglia (Nero, 2023), Conversazioni con la macchina. Il dialogo dell’arte con le intelligenze artificiali (Tlon, 2025) and Antimacchine. Mancare di rispetto alla tecnologia (Einaudi, 2025). Her books have been translated into several languages and are distributed internationally.
This event is part of the DANK TALKS project organized by the DANK IMAGES Research Networks. Everyone is welcome to attend!
Organisation: Christina Vollmert (Universität zu Köln), Konstanze Schütze (PH Karlsruhe), Jan Grünwald (Mozarteum Salzburg/Innsbruck)
Venue: Zoom via University of Cologne | Zoom-Link
Bildcredits: Zoë Roth, Disaster Girl / Bildbearbeitung: Sarah Wölker