Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Italian, 600 pages, 2019, Italy

There is a body of early work from early activists, sociologists and philosophers who engaged with the sociotechnical impact of information technology just before the Internet. This work has been mostly overlooked beyond the most famous examples. Much was written during the 1970s and 1980s that might inspire us now, if we look beyond the unavoidable naiveté of the beginnings. This is a limited edition non-commercial book with a print run of just 150 copies, whose pdf is freely downloadable, documenting unique research on hacktivism in Italy over these two crucial decades in the 20th century. Still in Italian only, it is a detailed and painstakingly documented history of the political movements’ discourse and strategies alongside the national IT history. It begins with a ‘study group’ at IBM in 1971, and progresses alongside the various Marxist analyses of information technologies’ impact, role and future in subsequent years. It is an exceptional document, with long quotes that meticulously reconstruct the broader context of Tommaso Tozzi’s own pioneering artistic work through a vast range of political, artistic and underground sources (the majority of which are quite rare). Tozzi illustrates the text with sources’ book covers and pictures of his own work in the same years. Hopefully this document will be translated soon.