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My work has been nomadic across languages, disciplines and media. My research focuses on mapping media ecologies, tech literacies, governance infrastructures and institutional world-building strategies that shape and consolidate the imagination (or lack thereof) about the future.

After my studies in media theory and communications, sociology and urban design, and as a self taught photographer, video maker and editor, I have been working in research and reporting, documentary, art and exhibition making, project design and curation with artists, international organisations, urban initiatives, NGOs, academic and art institutions and media platforms in Egypt, Italy, Morocco, Spain, Greece, the UK and Germany.

Sardinia > Egypt > London > Berlin



 

WRITING / PHOTOGRAPHY
UntoldMag, Orientixx, Awham, Spike, Delfina Foundation, Kaleidoscope, Fictional Journal, Tate Etc., Strelka Mag, Ibraaz, Mada Masr, Universes in Universe, Canvas Magazine, Egypt Independent, Fortress Europe, Articolo21 (among others).


We have always been cake, (Awham Magazine 2022)

A Drowned World (This is how it Ends), (Spike Magazine, 2022)
​​
Rebel Aesthetics, (Center for  the Cultivation of Technology, 2022)

How to get rid of the Ghosts of the Future, Between the Material and the Possible: Infrastructural Re-examination and  Speculation in Art - edited by Bassam El Baroni, (Sternberg Press, 2021)

Sad Sack, Sophia Al Maria, (Bookworks, 2019)

PSYOP: an anthology, Metahaven (Stedelijk  Museum, Koenig Books, 2018)

Entry Points. The Vera List Center Guide on Art and Social Justice (Duke University Press, 2015)

Dissonant Archives: Knowledge Production and Contested Narratives in the Middle East (Tauris, 2015)

PhotoCairo5  Catalogue (Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo 2014)

The Exorcist (Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven 2011) ​​
ART PRACTICE
DEEP DATA, video contribution to Design In Rising Winds, Hong Kong/Online (2025)

Water Cybernetics, installation with Antonia  Hernandez at Transmediale, A Model A Map A Fiction, Berlin (2023)

The Aesthetics of Finance, text, AI generated imagery, visual editing for Weird Economies platform, (ongoing, online)

​Cassandra, film screenings at Matadero Media Lab (Madrid), Transmediale (Berlin), Dutch Design Week, Economia Festivall (Eindhoven), Tbilisi Architecture Biennale 2021, Fiber Festival (Amsterdam), The Terraforming 2020, Strelka Institute, (Moscow)  

​At The Threshold of Amnesia, The Absence of Paths, Tunisian Pavilion, Venice Biennale (2017)  

Partners in Crime, multiplayer game presented at the London Design Weekend, Victoria and Albert  Museum (2017)

Co-founder of Take To The Sea artist collective with Lina Attallah and Nida Ghouse.

Take To The Sea produced writing, site-specific installations, photography, drawing, video  and sound-based works, and publications, including at: Yogyakarta Biennale (2013), The Hydrarchy Show at Contemporary Image  Collective, Cairo (2012) and Manifesta Biennale 8, Murcia (2010).

Take to the Sea had its first solo show at Nile Sunset Annex, Cairo in 2013 and was selected for the Vera List Prize.​​
TALKS
​“Collapsing Time”with Alice Bucknell, Sahej Rahal at Silent Green, Berlin (2023)
“How Water Calculates”, panel at Transmediale Symposium, Berlin (2023)

“Scenario Planning as Creative Practice”,'Art and Economics' lecture series MA visual cultures at Aalto University (2022)

"Another Terraforming" panel at Medialab Matadero, Madrid (2022)

“Steering the AI bias. Tactics for Narrative Diversity” with Alaa Mansour and Moises Horta Valenzuela.

“The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction and Artificial Scarcity” with Khyyam Allami, Mohamed Gaber.

ADE Berlin e.V. Media and Tech Series - online (2022)  

“Fantasy and Damage” panel at Transmediale Symposium, Berlin (2022)

"DAOs Goals, Loots and Raids", Almanac for Refusal - Transmediale (2021)

"National and Supranational Branding in the Memetic Age", Sandbox - Trust.Support (2021)

"How to build a world: Storytelling in digital environments, Amber Network Festival (2021)

"The Terraforming"at the Strelka Institute, Moscow (2020)

"The Revenge Of The Real", The Terraforming online colloquium (2020)

“Permanent Crisis: the evolution of media narratives of the migration crisis in Europe” at ICCG

International Conference of Critical Geography, Athens (2019)

"Reframing the Nation. Visual branding strategies to promote Egypt's tourism” ICCG Ramallah (2015)

"Hydrarchy" Symposium at Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo (2012)

“Parallel Narratives” at the Alternative News Agency Program at CIC, Cairo (2011)

“Egyptian irregular migration to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea” at the
American University in Cairo (2009)

© Laura Cugusi 2025

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