MAGDALENA KOVARIK

EDUCATION

2014-16 / New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), Master of Professional Studies

2006-12 / University of the Arts Berlin, Industrial Design, Diploma degree (MFA equivalent) in Product Design

2011 / Shenkar College of Engineering and Design Tel Aviv, Industrial Design and Visual Communication, Exchange program

2009 / ENSCI - Les Ateliers Paris, Industrial Design, Exchange program

2005-06 / University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Environment and Bioresources Management

SCHOLARSHIPS / GRANTS

2017 / European Cultural Foundation Project Grant

2014-16 /

› Fulbright Scholarship

› Tisch School of the Arts Departmental Scholarship

› Fürst Dietrichstein Stiftung Merit Scholarship

› Institute of International Education Shepherd Award

Pre-2014 / NIKA Grant for Education, Leonardo Da Vinci Grant, Erasmus Scholarship, DFJB language grant

EXHIBITIONS / FESTIVALS / TALKS / WORKSHOPS

2021 /

›  Wishes from Quarantine, Feldfünf project space Berlin, Conceptualized, designed, and led team to build a participatory cross-platform experience (with website) which collects and displays wishes from around the world

› queer AND BEYOND [choose category], Feldfünf project space Berlin

Co-curated multimedia exhibition on postdigital arts and artistic activism

2020 / 

› xCoaX, Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X, video presentation of my paper Postdigital Art in Design Education (with M.Dörk), which was also published though xCoaX

› Transmediale Vorspiel Berlin, Exhibited in group show, Fire is the Air the Poet Breathes at Lacuna Lab

2019 /

› Un/Natural Surrogates Online Exhibition, part of the wrong biennale, Creative and Art Director of the virtual exhibition

› Sursock Museum Beirut, artist talk

› Académie Libanaise Des Beaux Arts Beirut, lecture delivered, From Technology to Political Art

› The Art Museum in the Digital Age, Belvedere Vienna, lecture delivered, Dis-playing art: Appropriation in post-digital exhibitions

2018 /

› International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA) / DocLab Academy

Selected for IDFA’s DocLab Academy to create cross-platform storytelling and interactive art 

› International Symposium for Electronic Arts (ISEA)

Co-created exhibit with Smart City Sculpture and MIREVI (Mixed Reality & Visualization) using VR & Tilt Brush as a tool for collaborative urban storytelling

› FutureLeaks, Theatertreffen, Berliner Festspiele

Visual design and live content generation in the participatory multimedia performance

› The Brandenburg Centre for Media Studies (ZeM), Presented on panel on Post-Internet vs. Postdigital

2017 /

› Y Art Space Athens, Old Possessions, New Myths, Solo show

› FutureLeaks, Berliner Festspiele, Participatory multimedia performance series (s.a.)

2016 / 

› Invited expert at numerous hackathons and events including, IDEO CoLab Makeathon Cambridge, DOK Leipzig Prototype Jam, POV Digital Lab for Storytelling, NYC Media Lab Creative Tech Week

› Ars Electronica’s Future Innovators Summit, selected as up-and-coming multidisciplinary designer and artist

2013 / Light+Building design fair, Winner in category of Best Newcomer with Tetractory

2012 / Materialica Design+Technology design and innovation fair, Winner in category of Material Innovation with Tetractory

2011 / Designtransfer Berlin, Exhibited Kitbag at Do Good! What can a designer do for a better world?

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2017 to Present / University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, ‘Postdigital Art Practices in Cultural Education’, Research Fellow

› As an artist, designer and artistic researcher I developed a virtual exhibition, a hybrid interactive experience, and an immersive education tool on postdigital art, its networked environments, semiotics, means of production, and political dimensions. I also taught university classes on it, and published papers about it listed below

2017 / Google News Lab Fellow

› Developed new journalistic cross-media and VR formats at Wirtschaftswoche (wiwo) magazine, Düsseldorf

› Created interactive online stories, overseeing production, text, and AV content

2015-17 / NYU Entrepreneurial Institute, Design Consultant and Researcher

› Supported NYU’s early-stage start-ups in refining ideas and guiding entrepreneurs from ideation to product design and production. 

› Led rapid prototyping, physical computing, electronics, and model making for entrepreneurs and students at NYU

2012-14 / Fraunhofer Institute Berlin, Responsible Research and Innovation Think Tank, Idea Generator 

› Worked as part of a multidisciplinary team of experts in design thinking and speculative design techniques to develop innovative product, process and service solutions for the future of cities. With Berlin Waste Management, I developed speculative design scenarios for the future of urban waste, including mobile neighborhood recycling plants and in-building commodity pipeline systems.

2013/ Hybrid Space Lab, Design Think Tank Berlin, designed modular exhibition design furniture for indoor use and public space

2011 / 

› Loudordesign Studio, Assistant designing tableware products and created visualizations

› Unfold Design Studio, Assistant co-designing an exhibition of a set of 200 historical artefacts, architectural model making

2010 / 

› Student Assistant to Prof. Kathrin Busch, Department of Design Theory, UdK Berlin

› Donmartin Supersets, Production design internship for Ulrich Seidl’s multiple award-winning Paradise trilogy

› Maringer Scenography, Production design internship: set design, scenography, prop fabrication and graphics

AWARDS

2014 / 

› Green Product Award with Tetractory 

› Design Plus Award category ‘Best Newcomer’ by German Design Council (Rat für Formgebung) with Tetractory

2013 / Materialica Design+Technology Gold Award, first prize with Tetractory 

RESIDENCIES
2019 / Beirut Art Residency / BAR

Created My Manousha, My Choice, Multichannel 3D and video collages about women’s rights and gender stereotypes in Lebanon

2018 /  Innovation Hub Düsseldorf in collaboration with MIREVI (Mixed Reality Visualizations)

Design and tech development Residency  – VR as cross-border collaboration tool for urban storytelling

2017 / Y Artist Residency Athens

Created Old Possessions, New Myths, a series of mixed-media interventions in urban space around the Greek socio-economical crisis during documenta 14 festival in Athens

TEACHING 

2019 / Remixing Sanssouci – Plant the Exhibition, Hands-on class on digital remixing strategies of natural phenomena in open space, including technological guidance and theory, in collaboration with Park Sanssouci Potsdam

2018 / 

› Immersive Walking - Interactive Storytelling in Urban Space, Walking as artistic practice and developing sound, video, augmented reality, and data walking experiences to explore how phone apps and technologies can open new avenues for creative practice

› Postdigital Strategies [in Art and Design], Research-oriented project course exploring algorithmic portraiture, digital 

readymades, and urban collage. Students were guided through concept drafting and the use of  immersive and interactive tools

PUBLICATIONS

2021 / 

› un/natural surrogates by Benjamin Egger, Magdalena Kovarik, Ann-Kathrin Bernhard, and Daniele Maselli. In J. Ackermann & B. Egger, Transdisziplinäre Begegnungen zwischen postdigitaler Kunst und Kultureller Bildung. Perspektiven aus Wissenschaft, Kunst und Vermittlung.  Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

› Postdigitale Kunst ausstellen und erfahren. Gestaltung empathischer Feedbackschleifen als Ordnungsmoment für hybride Ausstellungskontexte by Benjamin Egger, Judith Ackermann and Magdalena Kovarik. In J. Ackermann & B. Egger, Transdisziplinäre Begegnungen zwischen postdigitaler Kunst und Kultureller Bildung. Perspektiven aus Wissenschaft, Kunst und Vermittlung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

2020 / Postdigital Art in Design Education by Magdalena Kovarik and Marian Dörk. xCoAx 2020: Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X, pages 74-86, July 2020.