Computational Art at the Venice Biennale (1970-2015)

Francesca Franco, PhD, is an independent curator, art historian, and producer based in the UK and Italy. Her research on the history of early computer art and its pioneers has been widely published and translated. Her recent books include Generative Systems Art (Routledge, 2018) and The Algorithmic Dimension (Springer, 2022). She is also the editor of The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of New Media Art (2025), Volume 1: History and Theory.

Notable curatorial projects include Vera Molnár: Icône 2020 at the 59th Venice Biennale, Algorithmic Signs (Venice, 2017), and Vera Molnár: Variazioni Icône (Rome, 2023). She has commissioned significant new works such as Molnár’s first glasswork Icône 2020 (2021), Roman Verostko’s St Mark’s Apocalypse (2017), Ernest Edmonds’s Growth and Form (2017), Quantum Tango (2025), and Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau’s Acqua Ma Non Troppo (2023).

Francesca is currently Visiting Professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), where she teaches Curatorial Practice and Computer Art. She is also serving as the 2025 SIGGRAPH Art Gallery Chair.