Focus module Cartographic Explorations 2025: Water edition

INTRODUCTION

Water often goes unnoticed in our daily lives, yet it is a vital resource that embodies a range of qualities—it can be threatening, calming, comforting, healing, transformative, invigorating, refreshing, and life-giving. In many cultures, water symbolizes purity and cleansing, serving as a powerful metaphor for forgiveness and rebirth. As a means of movement and transport, water connects people and places, facilitating trade and travel that shape societies. Its importance becomes strikingly evident during times of scarcity, revealing the conflicts that arise when competing interests clash over access to this essential resource. In essence, water is multifaceted and rich with paradoxes, central to the health of our planet and communities, calling us to recognize its power and protect this precious resource.

Social Innovation Lab x Waterschap de Dommel
The Focus Module Cartographic Explorations is a research-oriented course initiated by DAE’s Social Innovation Lab that introduces research strategies and skills as an addition to your design toolkit. Various cartographic techniques and fieldwork approaches are explored to conduct design research through an eco-social lens and critically engage with both quantitative and qualitative data crafting speculative designs and scenarios for societal change and awareness.

The Water Authority de Dommel, responsible for wastewater treatment and water management in the catchment area of the De Dommel river, will contribute to this course. Experts from the Water Authority will share insights into their efforts to improve water quality, prevent flooding, and mitigate droughts. In 2020, the Water Authority outlined the "Water Transition" based on three guiding principles: 1. Every drop counts, 2. Clean water should remain clean, and 3. Using the right water in the right place—integrating landscape, soil, and water in spatial planning. This translates to the notion that not everything can be done everywhere.

 The Water Transition recognizes that traditional methods are insufficient to address the challenges posed by climate change and increasingly intensive land use due to a growing population. New approaches are necessary, ones that include improvements in wastewater treatment and water management, while also engaging end-users, residents, industries, and farmers. Consequently, both technical and social innovations will be essential over the coming decades to effectively implement the Water Transition, creating an increasing demand for designers to play a key role in this transition.

In this course we will explore pressing challenges such as water scarcity, pollution (including plastic), inequitable access, climate change, aging infrastructure, and the effects of rapid population growth. We will also examine agricultural demands and the conflicts that arise from competition over shared water resources. Engaging with the critical role that water plays in our daily lives and our relationship with the environment, we will seek tangible ways to express this connection through visual, experiential, and poetic mediums. By illustrating how our behaviours and daily choices impact water demand, wastewater generation, and pollution, we aim to foster awareness.

This course will feature regional field research conducted on the grounds of Waterschap de Dommel, providing you with unique opportunities to engage with experts and gain firsthand insights into local water management challenges. For example, there will be an excursion to the municipal wastewater treatment plant. This visit will provide an overview of the Water Authority’s activities through a presentation and a tour of the wastewater treatment facility. Here, the wastewater from a large part of the region, including the Design Academy Eindhoven, is treated before it flows into the De Dommel river.

In addition, guest lecturers will talk about their research, that, for example, address the anthropological aspects of water, examining how different cultures treat and utilize this vital resource, for instance in rituals. You will receive masterclasses from design researchers working with water and you will work with data related to water, learning to create compelling maps, visualizations, and counter-maps.

During the midterm, you will present your work in progress to water experts, hydrologists, biologists, innovators, and others at Waterschap de Dommel. As we enter a multi-year collaboration with the Water Authority, there will be opportunities to further explore this subject throughout your graduation. Additionally, if your project is selected there is an opportunity to showcase your work at the Water Embassy during Dutch Design Week.

TUTOR TEAM

Dr. Naomi Bueno de Mesquita 
Researcher at the crossroads of design, art, anthropology, and philosophy, with a particular focus on cartography and emerging technologies. At DAE, Naomi is lector of the Readership on Social Innovation (SI-LAB). Using participatory methodologies, the lab actively engages a diverse array of stakeholders in addressing complex transition challenges and shaping decision-making processes. Collaborating with institutional partners such as municipal and provincial governments, as well as organizations like Rijkswaterstaat, the lab provides expert guidance on participatory design strategies, effectively integrating social innovation with both organizational and technological advancements. Naomi earned her PhD from KU Leuven/LUCA School of Arts (Belgium) in 2022, focusing on the intersection of critical cartography and design research. Her doctoral work examines the potential and implications of digital technologies in map creation and use, exploring how map apps can foster participation in public spaces and public issues. https://www.designacademy.nl/page/6715/professorship-design-and-social-innovation

Isis Boot
Social designer and concept developer with a background in design (DAE) and human geography (Radboud University, University of Vienna). Her expertise lies in urban development and architecture, community building, and participatory practices, with a keen interest in embedding social ecosystems within these contexts. Isis aims to foster interdisciplinary cross-pollination between socio-spatial sciences, design, and society to promote critical thinking and drive societal transitions. She is deeply committed to immersing herself in the environments she studies, allowing her to connect theory with practice. In her work, Isis adeptly blends qualitative research methodologies with design practices, creating innovative tools and approaches for applied projects. Her projects often involve collaborations with governments, consultancy firms, architects, and developers, where she facilitates interdisciplinary dialogue and contributes to the development of socially responsive and sustainable urban environments.

Niene Boeijen
Geo-scientist, digital cartographer and web map developer. Next to being a technological skilled web cartographer she is a critical thinker with backgrounds in arts and design. She has designed and developed several (interactive) maps of the Netherlands; from geo-data processing, back-end and applications to the cartographic visualisations. Hereby she has experience with several Dutch open geo-datasets, Openstreetmap data and skills in all kinds of open source GIS tools. https://nieneb.nl/online-projects/

WORKING METHOD

This focus module consists of three tracks: a skill-building track, a theoretical input track, and a project development track.

The skill-building track emphasizes essential competencies such as conducting field research, utilizing tracking devices, working with various data types, and transforming that data into engaging visualizations, maps, or counter-maps. You will collaborate with two primary tutors and two additional tutors who will offer master classes. Throughout the course, you will learn to work with diverse forms of data—including qualitative, quantitative, hard, and soft data—and how to effectively integrate field research with digital methods. This includes utilizing tools such as GPS tracking and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

The theoretical track provides a long list of (guest)lectures and literature references designed to deepen your understanding and inform your practice.

The project track encourages you to delve into a personal interest related to the topic, culminating in a research project that delivers a tangible outcome. This includes thorough documentation of your process and guidance on effectively presenting your research.

The project may take various forms, such as a mapping initiative, a conversation piece, a dialogic tool, or other creative outputs. While the outcome can be open-ended, equal emphasis is placed on the research process itself and the presentation of your findings.

In the initial stages of the course, the skill-building and theoretical tracks are emphasized, while they gradually recede in prominence towards the end. Conversely, the project track starts less prominently but becomes the central focus as the course progresses.