About

Katrin Schamun is an artist, architect, and independent researcher affiliated with the Department of Film, Art and Visual Studies at Harvard University as a Research Associate. Her areas of research include avant-garde cinema, experimental media, film theory, and media theory with special attention to built space.

In her artistic and research practice she investigates the evolution of spatial perception with regard to sensation through audiovisual media. Her practical approach is based on artistic and experimental traditions. Trained in Architecture and Film Art studies, she brings a cross-disciplinary approach to each of her projects. Art, together with design and architecture, is for her both individual expression as well as an instrument of education. She regards these three disciplines as means to achieve social harmony and harmony with nature.  

As an independent critic and scholar, she has explored the relationship of architecture and filmic art to ideologies of experiential practice. Her writings have appeared in journals and books about art, architecture, and film. In 2010, she was one of the founders and early editors of an online magazine, now baunetz-id.de, which communicates design, art, and architecture to a broader public. She has contributed her artistic and scholarly work as a participant and speaker to a variety of conferences and symposia, and has often served as an advisor and reviewer at student exhibitions.

Since coming to Harvard University, she has conducted in Film Studies with Prof. Tom Conley, Prof. Rick Rentschler and Prof. Giuliana Bruno as well as in History of Art + Architecture with Prof. Benjamin Buchloh, with whom she also taught as a research assistant. Previously she taught architecture theory and design as an Assistant Professor at the Chinese Academy of Arts (CAA) in Hangzhou (2012–2013). Prior to that she was a Docent and Research Fellow at the University of the Arts Berlin (UdK), at the Institute for Architecture, Architectural Theory, and Urban Studies, as well as at the Institute for Time-Based Media and Program Art (2008–2012). Among other lectureships and workshops, she also taught at the Berlage Institute Rotterdam, the Technical University of Berlin, and the Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg (Germany).