On 15 June 2026 I had the immense pleasure to be present at the doctoral defence of Marlies Vermeulen, at the University of Maastricht. Marlies is the first candidate to finish her doctoral studies in artistic research at MERIAN, the Maastricht Experimental Research In and through the Arts Network, a collaboration between Maastricht University, jan van eyck academie, and Zuyd University of Applied Sciences. The project was supervised by Ruth Benschop (Zuyd), Carolin Stapenhorst (RWTH Aachen) and Peter Peters (Maastricht University).
Marlies’ thesis A Journey on How to Become a Cartopologist addresses issues of redesigning public spaces, landscapes, and urban contexts, and the process for spatial designers and architects to “make sense” of the complexity of such contexts. This includes questions of participation and how to address the reality of residents’ daily lives – and take this seriously in the process of (re)designing. In Marlies’ case, this is intimately connected to reading and creating maps, and the practice she has developed with Dear Hunter, with her partner and collaborator Remy Kroese.
The research has been conducted through an artistic research methodology, in which a number of fields and areas are covered: First, the dissertation offers extensive insights on a great range of approaches to map-making and -using, including the omnipresent digital versions of maps, their possibilities, and shortcomings. Second, Marlies makes extensive use of the contexts, practices, and histories of climbing, hiking, trailrunning, ultracycling, and travelling — an aspect that I particularly appreciate and love about this work: Using these contexts extends the notion of what can be artistic practice, and which practices can be relevant and nurturing for artistic research. Third, the research relates to academic and methodological traditions such as (auto-)ethnography and anthropology, through which Marlies introduces and develops the neologism of cartopology (a combination of cartography and anthropology). I like the eclectic collection of areas, approaches and practices, not uncommon in artistic research; it relates very well to the now classic notion of methodological pluralism by Henk Borgdorff (2017).
Probably one of the most striking and fastinating elements in this doctoral artistic research, for me, is the form that Marlies found to disseminate her work, as an artistic research outcome: She did not choose for an approach in which artistic or design work is presented next to a written dissertation in the form of a book, or a website, but opted for a rather integrated approach: She created a wooden box, doubling as a mountain backpack: The Travellor’s Edition. It contains 35 maps, the form Marlies chose to embody “stations”, chapters, or sections. Also included is a huge map called “Panoramic View of Cartopology”, made of dyed cotton, with booklets glued on it, doubling as Introduction, “table” of contents (if that term meaningfully applies here at all — more a map of contents, really), and several routes through the various stations — or maps of the dissertation. Maps are everywhere.
The thesis is structured in a way that entirely reflects the nature of the research project. It challenges the reader, – in a positive way – who needs to take a personal approach towards going through the thesis and its materials (in the form of multimodal/multimedial maps); yet at the same time it provides sufficient structure and suggestion to find one’s way through these materials. Here lies one of the great qualities of the chosen form: The logic in which one is invited to study the materials of the thesis embodies the logic and practice in which the research is conducted.
It is fascinating to experience a dissemination form that, in this sense, truly embodies artistic research as a discipline: No hard distinctions can be drawn between artistic/design practice, academic writing/reflection, documentation, output in the form of artistic“work”, and, finally, a way of living. And it is the last point which shows Marlies’ approach in its radicalness: Her work and research includes the “Berghut Halverwege”, the “Mountain Hut Half-Way”, which also houses her Remy Kroese’s Institute of Cartopology: This is not merely an extension of the research or area of practice (as, for example, the traditional “exhibition part” of an artistic research doctorate), but entirely intertwined with everything the thesis offers. I love how the institute functions as studio, archive, learning and teaching space, and lived metaphor (if such a thing exists) of a mountain hut 246 meters above sea level, where it is possible to eat, have a coffee or a snack, and sleep overnight. This is important, as it not only concerns the form of dissemination critical to this individual research project, but also situates the project in a phase of artistic research as a discipline, where such distinctions are continuously and consciously challenged.
For everyone interested in this project and methodology, I can only warmly recommend visiting the Institute of Cartopology and the Berghut Halverwege (Mountain Hut Half-way). And for the avid walkers or runners: It is situated very closely to the route of the famous Dutch Mountain Trail, so make sure to stop by when being on the trails.
Falk Hübner 