Second-year students: introduction and groundwork presentations

At the Roundtable on 27 October 2026, the second-year students of the Art & Science master’s programme introduced themselves. They spoke about their backgrounds and the questions that currently drive their work.

Second-year students

David Ristic grew up in Austria. His work explores what happens to memories when the places that hold them are transformed or destroyed by large infrastructure projects.

Pauline Simon studied in Düsseldorf. Her work deals with infrastructure and what lies behind and beneath buildings, most recently in an exhibition at KIT Düsseldorf, where she reconstructed a water leak as a screen-printed shadow.

Rajarshi Sarkar studied mathematics and mathematical modelling in India and Europe before training in film direction. Now based in Vienna and working in theatre, he explores dance, love and memories of growing up in India in the 1990s.

Hasti Ghasedi studied multimedia arts in Tehran and has worked in 3D modelling, virtual reality, game development and colour grading for television. Her practice also includes improvisation with music and sound.

Leonard Otterbein is a biologist specialising in ecotoxicology, the study of how chemicals affect soil and ecosystems. He also composes, plays piano and other instruments, and has recently turned to drawing.

Agustina Belén Agüero has a background in sociology and archival studies. Her work examines female representation and the gaze in cinema, and she experiments with analogue photography and alternative processes such as natural emulsions and cyanotype.

Moritz Klarer is a physician who has worked as a paramedic and conducted research in Canada. He publishes on high-altitude alpine medicine and has trained in photography in Vienna.

Aryan Shahabian is an architectural designer and artist who has worked on numerous architectural projects and competitions. He combines design, architecture and artistic practice.