Dr. Dana Karwas

Biography

Dana Karwas is a lecturer at Yale University, where she also serves as the director of the Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM). She holds a PhD in Urban Systems from New York University’s School of Engineering, an MPS in Interactive Telecommunications from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Kansas. Her teaching focuses on mechanized perception and the design of terrestrial and celestial spaces. At CCAM, she runs the Ultra Space Lab, leads the Maquette Publication, and fosters interdisciplinary collaborations among faculty and students while curating shows at the CCAM ISOVIST Gallery. Karwas’ practice dismantles perception and reconstructs unexpected ways of seeing, blending architecture, cognition, and logic to push past familiarity into the uncanny. Her work explores the reorientation of knowledge, making the familiar feel offset and the unknown feel inevitable through sculpture, digital imagery, 3D printing, glass casting, painting, and architectural interventions. She has previously held the position of Media Director for Maya Lin’s final memorial, Missing?, and joined the Yale community as an Assistant Professor in the Integrated Design Media program at NYU Engineering. Karwas’ work has been exhibited in various venues including Spill 180, ISOVIST Gallery, and the Museum of Moving Image.

Research Interests