ABOUT
Applied Studies in Art, Science, Philosophy, and Global Challenges
The department Cross-Disciplinary Strategies (CDS) offers a practice-based BA and MA study programme.
At CDS, students, artists, scholars, and civil communities work together to create an open space in which experimental projects and research come to life.
Cross-Disciplinary Strategies allows students to work on global challenges by interweaving perspectives from three study areas: (i) artistic strategies and art perception, (ii) science and technology, and (iii) economics and politics. CDS understands this collaboration as a basic precondition to finding practical solutions. In this way, CDS emphasises the intellectual practice of cross-disciplinarity and the transformative potential of engaging across different positions with diverse stakeholders.
STAFF
Senior Scientist, Mag. M.Phil.
Christian Höller heads the CDS Department. He runs the Master CDC Lab and supervises MA theses. Additionally, he initiates and develops exhibition projects for MA’s related to specific annual topics.
Christian Höller is editor of springerin – Hefte für Gegenwartskunst and has written extensively on art and cultural theory. Between 2002 and 2007, he was Visiting Professor at the École supérieure des beaux-arts in Geneva. Since 2018, he has been teaching at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
He has further curated several film programs, including:
- Pop Unlimited? (2000) and No Wave New York 1976–84 (2010) at the International Short FilmFestival Oberhausen
- Scan Scroll Surf – Digital Film Aesthetics Today (2014), Third from the Sun. Views and Prospects of the Anthropocene (2019) and Network Explosion (2022) at mumok Vienna.
Senior Artist, Mag.art. BArch
At CDS — after working with the BA students in the Application Lab in the past — Adnan Balcinovic currently focuses on courses about the role of artistic strategies such as reproduction, copying, repetition, and appropriation in cross-disciplinary practices.
Adnan Balcinovic further supports BA students in creating and continuously working on a study journal in the framework of the Program Related Reflection. This is a tool that documents the skills acquired, projects carried out, but also failures and dreams textually and visually. He also supports BA finalists in setting up a common ground for the presentation/installation/exhibition of the practical application of their BA thesis.
Adnan Balcinovic is an artist. In his artistic practice he deals with serial production in relation to moving images. Adnan works mainly with found materials and searches for concepts, structures, and patterns. Important terms for his artistic practice are repetition, reproduction, and presentation. As part of his artistic research and work, he is currently looking a lot at clouds, and depiction of clouds.
Nina Bandi
Senior Lecturer, BA MA
At CDS, Nina Bandi co-leads the Application Lab with the research focus “Witnessing” (2025/26). Furthermore, she offers the course Program Related Reflection and supervises Bachelor theses within the framework of the Finalist Lab. She also teaches the seminar Digital Democracy: Impact of AI about the political consequences of the digital transformation.
Nina Bandi is a philosopher and political theorist who is interested in the overlapping of speculative thought, aesthetic and cultural practices, and political questions. She works on the topic of non/representation as well as on the relation between bodies, technology, and materiality from a queer feminist and postcolonial perspective.
Before joining CDS Nina Bandi has been teaching for more than ten years at different universities mainly in Switzerland and has been involved in a variety of theoretical and practice-based research projects. Recent examples include:
https://www.what-can-art-do.ch/
and
Senior Lecturer, Mag. PhD
At CDS, Gudrun Ratzinger co-leads the Application Lab, focusing on the themes of “Forecast” (2024/25) and “Witnessing” (2025/26). She also teaches the Program Related Reflection course, supervises bachelor’s theses within the framework of the Finalist Lab, and guides a transdisciplinary student project as part of the Sustainability Challenge.
Gudrun Ratzinger is a cultural scientist and curator. She studied art history at the University of Vienna and cultural studies at the University of Arts Linz. Her doctoral thesis examined the potential of installation- and object-based representations of history in contemporary art. Prior to joining CDS, she worked at Kunsthalle Wien, the Generali Foundation, the Wien Museum and the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology.
Her independent curatorial projects lie at the intersection of contemporary art, everyday culture, and cultural studies.
Yona Catrina Schreyer
Senior Scientist, BA MSc
At CDS, Yona Catrina Schreyer co-leads the CDC Application Lab, focusing on the themes of “Forecast” (2024/25) and “Witnessing” (2025/26). She also teaches the Scientific Seminar ‘Politics, Economics, Global Changes’ with a focus on urban transformation and supervises BA theses within the framework of the CDC Finalist Lab.
Yona Catrina Schreyer is a spatial researcher and practitioner. She has studied architecture in Munich, Milan, and Ahmedabad and is currently pursuing her doctoral research at the Polytechnic University of Milan. Prior to joining CDS, she has been working, teaching, and conducting research projects at various international institutions. She has been teaching at the University of Applied Arts since 2020.
Yona Catrina Schreyer’s activities explore the relation between people and place, and how societal dynamics, norms, and forms refract in the design of the built environment. With her collective So.No Società Nomade, she develops critical spatial practices in order to achieve interdisciplinary experimental pedagogies and alternative design methods in the realm of urban commons, social infrastructures, care, and empowerment.
University Assistant, Mag.rer.nat.
At CDS, Tanja Traxler teaches a range of topics within science and technology studies and supervises BA theses in this field.
Tanja Traxler’s cross-disciplinary work bridges science, philosophy, the arts, and society. Trained as a theoretical quantum physicist, her research, writing, and teaching have expanded from foundational explorations in quantum physics to broader inquiries in science and technology studies. Her work addresses gender issues, intercultural perspectives, and historical contexts.
Tanja Traxler’s research and teaching, rooted in quantum physics, reach beyond disciplinary boundaries, engaging with themes such as the nature of space and time, ethical challenges arising from scientific advances, and the philosophical foundations of science. Central to her approach is a dedication to cross-disciplinary research that combines the sciences, philosophy, and the arts.
At CDS, Andrea Nejo is responsible for the department’s organisational and administrative tasks. She coordinates the educational activities for students and lecturers.
She has a training background in economy and public administration. Since the late 90ies she has been organising curatorial projects of African art and media art with her association “Cross Cultural Communication”, presented a.o. at Kunsthalle Krems, Museum of Ethnology (Weltmuseum Wien), in Public Space (@rtScreen) and at the Ars Electronica Festival, as well as an award-winning monthly art magazine at a non-commercial TV station in Vienna.
At CDS, Cornelia Auinger assists with the department’s organisational and administrative tasks, mainly coordinating excursions for students and lecturers.
She is an artist and cultural worker. She uses multiple media forms in her artistic practice, with a focus on photography, installation, video, and performative approaches. Her works engage with issues of perception, collaboration, communication, environmental protection, and cultures of sustainability. Since 2012 she is a co-founder of the art association See you next Thursday and co-curated the artspace Schneiderei.
https://www.liakarl.com/
MA Students
Khadisha Dabayeva
Sara Sadat Karimi
BA Students
Lisa Gerner
Julia Skrobisz
LECTURERS
Elena Beringer, Univ.-Lekt. DI
Boris Buden, Univ.-Lekt. Dr.phil.
Ryan Crawford, Univ.-Lekt. BA, MA, PhD
Fabian Elbaky, Univ.-Lekt. B.A., B.A., M.A.
Lucian Viorel Gheorghita, Univ.-Lekt. MSc
Peter Hochenauer, Univ.-Lekt. BA MSc
Brigitte Krenn, Univ.-Lekt. Mag. Dr.
Ludwig List, Univ.-Lekt. MA., MSc.
Monika Mokre, Univ.-Lekt. Dr. PD
Manfred Nowak, Sen.Lect., Univ.-Lekt. Univ.-Prof. Dr. LLM
Elisabeth Oberzaucher Univ.-Lekt. Mag. Dr.rer.nat.
Birgit Peterson, Univ.-Lekt. Mag.rer.nat.
Sophia Rut, Univ.-Lekt. MSc
Jan Schlüter, Univ.-Lekt. Dr.
Pouya Sepehr, Univ.-Lekt. MA, MA, PhD
Renata Wetter, Univ.-Lekt. DI BA
CDS Studio and Offices
Cross-Disciplinary Strategies
Expositur Georg-Coch-Platz (= PSK)
Georg-Coch-Platz 2, first floor
Institute of Arts and Society
University of Applied Arts Vienna
Vienna, Austria
