About

RESEARCH PRACTICE

Katharina D. Martin (Dr phil.) is a qualified researcher based in Rotterdam. She has given numerous lectures, published articles and is co-editor of the anthology Innen - Aussen - Anders, Körper im Werk von Gilles Deleuze und Michel Foucault, (Drews/Martin, transcript, 2017). From 2014 to 2019 she was an Associate Member of the Cluster of Excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and from 2016 to 2020 she taught moving image theory at AKI Enschede ArtEZ University of the Arts Arnhem. Her dissertation, was graded magna cum laude and published in 2023: Technik als Problem des Ausdrucks. Über die naturphilosophischen Implikationen technikphilosophischer Theorien, (transcript, 2023).

Martin's research areas comprise philosophy of nature, philosophy of technology, and aesthetics, focussing on concepts such as expression, form, milieu, and body. Currently she is working on a concept of the digital form that takes digital operationality into account.

PUBLICATIONS

ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8876-7610

  • 2023 »Ein Streifzug durch die Abstraktionsebenen digitaler Formen« in: Art and Artworks in the Digital Age. Philosophical Perspectives, Artistic Practices, TRÓPOS V. 15 N. 1 (2023), ed. by Alice Iacobone, pp. 26-42.
  • 2023 Technik als Problem des Ausdrucks. Über die naturphilosophischen Implikationen technikphilosophischer Theorien, Bielefeld transcript.
  • 2020 »Organisation und Konkretion: Technik als das Problem des Ausdrucks in der Philosophie« in Ladewig/Seppi (Eds.) Milieu Fragmente: Technologische und ästhetische Perspektiven, Leipzig. S. 41-48.
  • 2017 »Ecologies of Corporeal Space« in: Sohn, Heidi/Radman, Andrej (eds.): Critical and Clinical Cartographies Architecture, Robotics, Medicine, Philosophy Edinburgh University Press, pp. 178–312.
  • 2017 Ann-Cathrin Drews/Katharina D. Martin (Hg.): Innen. Außen. Anders, Körper im Werk von Gilles Deleuze und Michel Foucault,  Bielefeld transcript.
  • 2017 Debate transcript, Martin, K. D./Sturm, J./Schilpzand S. B., in: Channa van Dijk et al. (eds.): In staat tot natuur festival DRIFT 2016. Amsterdam: Merlijn Olnon Publicis, pp. 114–136.

TALKS

  • 2023 ‘Technology Expression Individuation’ Book presentation & Panel with Sjoerd van Tuinen, Samo Tomsic, Claudia Blüme, Cluster of Excellence Matters of Activity, Berlin.
  • 2019 ‘Digital Technology: The new Link between Production and Practice’ Bauhaus 100 What now? Gropius Bauhaus Dessau-Rosslau.
  • 2018 ‘Das Gesicht ist Politik. Zur Sehmaschine im Digitalen Milieu’ Lecture Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt.
  • 2017 ‘Amplified Bodies and Digital Aesthetic’ NECS European Network for Cinema and Media Studies, Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris.
  • 2015 ‘Medical Science, Medical Practice, Medical Aesthetic’ 8th international Deleuze Studies Conference, Stockholm.
  • 2015 ‘Digitale Tarnung: Das Potential einer optischen Dimension’ Techne Poiesis Aesthesis, Technik und Techniken in Kunst und ästhetischer Praxis, Hamburg.
  • 2014 ‘Augmented Reality: An Optical Dimension, A Membrane’ Clinical and Critical Cartographies, Delft.
  • 2014 ‘The Digital Milieus and Their Material Entanglement’ Philosophy After Nature, Utrecht.
  • 2014 ‘White Wall and Black Hole: Micro-politics of the Undetectable Face’ What Images Do, Copenhagen.

TEACHING (selection)

  • Martin, Katharina D. (SS 2017): (Hi)story of Moving Image (Film Forms: Expressions, Surrealism, Realism and Dialectics), context module, BA  Moving Image
  • Martin, Katharina D. (SS 2017): Society and Control (Michel Foucault/Gilles Deleuze), philosophy module, BA Moving Image
  • Martin, Katharina D. (WS 2017/18): Human, Machine, Cyborg. (Lewis Mumford/Michel Foucault//Donna Haraway) philosophy module, BA Moving Image
  • Martin, Katharina D. (WS 2017/18): Image Theory (On Signs, Affects and Rhythm) philosophy module, BA Moving Image
  • Drews A-C., Martin K.D. (WS 2013/14) Körper im Werk von Gilles Deleuze und Michel Foucault Hauptseminar at Academy of Fine Art Münster

QUALIFICATIONS

  • 2023 Doctoral Degree Philosophical Aesthetics Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig
  • 2017-2023 Doctoral Candidate Philosophical Aesthetic Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, Supervisor Prof. Dr. Marc Rölli (Philosophy)
  • 2021 Advanced Architectural Theory Research Seminar TU Delft, Ass. Prof. Dr. Andrej Radman (Architecture Theory)
  • 2017 Advanced Architectural Theory Research Seminar TU Delft, Ass. Prof. Dr. Andrej Radman (Architecture Theory)
  • 2014-2017 Doctoral Candidate Philosophical Aesthetic University of Fine Arts Münster, Supervisor Prof. Dr. Claudia Blümle (Aesthetics)
  • 2013 Dipl. Fine Art (Meisterschülerabschluss) Academy of Fine Arts Münster
  • 2007 Post Graduate Seminar Art Theory Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam
  • 2006 BA Fine Art AKI ArtEZ Academy for Art and Design Enschede
  • 2003 Dipl. Social Pedagogy University of Applied Sciences Münster, Supervisor Prof. Dr. Bernhard Brugger (Psychology)

ART PRACTICE

Katharina D. Martin is an experienced artist. Her videos and other artworks have been shown throughout Europe and she has been Artist in Residence at the International Studio & Curatorial Program ISCP, New York, and the (Robert Wilson) Watermill Centre, Watermill Southampton. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art in Vilniu, MACRO Rome and Torch Gallery Amsterdam. In 2019 she had a solo exhibition at GALLERY Joey Ramone in Rotterdam, and her video work Stick was shown at the Bienalsur Biennial in Buenos Aires in 2023.

Martin creates bridges between identity art and significant formalist movements. Patchwork quilts, textile objects, costumes, performances and videos refer to the canon of female artists. The materials used such as wax, latex, and PVC (from inflatable sex dolls) are inherently meaningful as they resemble human skin. Nevertheless, she succeeds in giving the meaningful signs an aesthetic and open form.

The composition of her oeuvre, which runs through all media, aims at a suspension that emerges from a repetitive structure, the play of substitutions, classifications and reversals. Her synthetic method of patching and assembling is necessarily preceded by the act of dissecting, dismantling and melting down. The rearranged objects are rough, show a violent handiwork and visualise a struggle with the material revealing the originality of Martin's work. Indeed, it is her personal style that combines the aesthetics of vulnerability and discomfort with formal qualities and decorative beauty. Her biography is characterised by traumatic moments of loss and grief, and the concept of pain is implicit in her work in different ways. The language of pain is usually a language of lament and mourning, but, as in this case, it can also be the language of carefully measured gestures as artistic mannerism.

Katharina D. Martin is ranked among the Top 100,000 globally. Martin’s best rank was in 2024, the artist’s rank has improved over the last 3 years, with the most dramatic change in 2023. https://artfacts.net/artist/katharina-d-martin/128693

EXHIBITIONS (selection)

  • 2023 She Devil Biennale Bienalsur Museo de Artes Visuales de Caseros, Buenos Aires/Argentinia
  • 2019 Patch Dynamics solo show at gallery JOEY RAMONE Rotterdam (solo)
  • 2014 All attitudes, all the shapeliness, all the belongings at RAM foundation Rotterdam/NL
  • 2013 Girls rule the world at Torch gallery Amsterdam/NL
  • 2012 International Contemporary Art Festival RE-culture 1 Patras/GR
  • 2011 She Devil video group show MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome/IT
  • 2011 Skin-deep at Galerie IRIS CORNELIS, Rotterdam/NL (solo)
  • 2006 The Seamstress at Het Torentje, Almelo/NL (solo)
  • 2007 Positioning System at MAMA Showroom for Media and Moving Art Rotterdam/NL
  • 2005 Kunst in unserer Region at Kunsthaus Kloster Gravenhorst/DE