Dr. Tommaso Durante

Dr. Tommaso Durante is an independent scholar, visual artist, and educator whose work spans global studies, media, and communication. He holds a Master of Arts in Public Space from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and a PhD in Media and Communication, having previously served as a lecturer and course coordinator at institutions including the University of Melbourne and RMIT University in Australia, as well as Freie Universität Berlin and Leipzig University (Global and European Studies Institute) in Germany. Combining a background as a painter, sculptor, and installation artist with interdisciplinary scholarship, his career bridges creative practice and critical theory.

Durante’s research operates at the intersection of global aesthetics, visual culture, mediatization, and the philosophy of technology. His work investigates how visual imagery produces and reflects global politics, examining the ideological shift from modern social imaginaries to a “global imaginary” within fast-globalising cities and the different materiality of the World Wide Web. His practice-based and theoretical inquiry focuses on global visual rhetoric, national populist ideologies, and the impact of digital landscapes—including algorithmic code and artificial intelligence—on human perception and public discourse.

His most recent publications include The Algorithmic Global Imaginary (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026); Digital (Global) Capitalism and Re-Globalization (Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2026); Global Iconology: Analyzing and Interpreting Cultural Transformations Under Present Conditions (Peirce Studies #11, 2024); and Globalization and Visual Rhetoric: The Rise of a Global Media Order? (University of California Press, 2023).
Among his notable scholarly contributions, Durante created The Visual Archive Project of the Global Imaginary (initiated in 2007) and authored The Image as Political Theory – Global Visual Politics (2017). He has published extensive research on visual culture and global political theory across international academic books, journals and platforms. In addition to his published writing, his achievements include multi-format artistic exhibitions, contributions to edited volumes on algorithmic images and sociology, and public commentary on digital culture and media.

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