Antonio Caronia (Genova, 1944) teaches “Design of Social Communication” in the
Accademia di Belle Arti (Fine Arts Faculty) of Brera, and “Aesthetics of Media” in the
NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti), both in Milan. He is Director of Studies of online
PhD courses in the M-Node (Planetary Collegium, Plymouth, GB).
In the Sixties and the Seventies, while studying mathematics, logic and linguistics, he
was a political activist and leader in the left-wing italian groups. After 1977 he turned to
the study of mass culture and communication theory, especially of the relationship
between science, technology and imagination. He research in philosophy and
anthropology, in regard to science fiction, comics, digital images, virtual reality and
telematic networks.
He writes now for the left-wing newspaper L’Unità, and the reviews Millepiani, Pulp,
Cyberzone. He translates novels, essays and articles from English to Italian language.
Besides many essays published in anthologies and reviews, he wrote Nei labirinti della
fantascienza (The Mazes of Science Fiction, 1979), Il cyborg. Saggio sull’uomo artificiale
(The Cyborg. Essay on the Artificial Man, 1985, new revised edition 2001), Il corpo
virtuale (The Virtual Body, 1996), Houdini e Faust. Breve storia del cyberpunk (Houdini
and Faust. A Short History of Cyberpunk, 1997, with D. Gallo), Archeologie del virtuale
(Virtual Archaeologies, 2001). He is now writing books about Philip K. Dick and James
G. Ballard.