Roberta Buiani (CA)

Born in Italy, I have lived and studied in Europe and in the United States before settling in Canada. But it was my first visit to North America that determined my future interests: during an exchange program at the University of Denver I faced my first computer (a Pentium 100) and a now-rudimentary version of Photoshop. A very effective way to learn how to use a mouse.

After my BA in Literature at the University of Bologna (Italy) and a MA in Art History at York University (Toronto, Canada), I am currently working at my PhD dissertation at the joint Graduate Programme in Communication and Culture.

I haven’t found a precise definition of my “profession” yet, although I dealt with this question several times in my life. I am an academic, but I am also a technology amateur, a self-taught web designer, a part-time media activist and an artist. Since I have discovered that burying myself in a library is not my primary aspiration, I keep myself busy with any kind of research that involves frequent contact with human beings, be it on-line or off-line, the group of study or the community, the demo or the workshop.

I had many jobs: once a trained “project manager,” I spent a few years working in theatre and dance; I endured the tedious routine of the office as an admin. for a big corporation; I learnt the art of selling (and dust smelling) Persian rugs in a tapestry store; I learnt to avoid tourist resorts after having impersonated myself the animator; experience tells me that I can be a very creative (but not as effective) technical translator. best experience: collecting fruit for local farmers….but this was back in the Eighties: now it’s become a “serious” business.

So far, I have written for art magazines and journals, exhibition catalogues, general interest magazines and academic journals in English and Italian across Europe and North America.

Related links: http://www.yorku.ca/robb/, , Transmediale