Dear Hunter - lecture and workshop
Dear Hunter is an artistic research practice that produces maps and atlases based on ethnographic fieldwork.
On Tuesday December 9th we're inviting them for a lecture (open for everyone) and workshop (for PhD students only).
09 december 2025
9h00 - 16h00
Begijnhof, Zuivelmarkt 33, 3500 Hasselt
About Dear Hunter
Dear Hunter is an artistic research practice that produces maps and atlases based on ethnographic fieldwork. It is considered the founding practice of what is now referred to as cartopology. Established in 2014, Dear Hunter works primarily with public authorities in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, mapping the (use of) public space in order to foster a deeper understanding of it.
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The Dear Hunter core team, Marlies Vermeulen and Remy Kroese, have recently extended their practice by founding the Institute of Cartopology, which is dedicated to the development and dissemination of cartopology as a field and research method. Many of the challenges of the 21st century have a spatial dimension—climate change, the housing crisis, migration. We constantly use maps to better understand these spatial issues. And we are (finally) discovering that these complex challenges require multifaceted approaches. Maps cannot stay behind. If they are to remain windows onto the world and its challenges, they must evolve to better reflect its complexity.
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Remy Kroese (Heerlen NL, 1981) is trained as Lecturer in the Arts, Interior Architect and Architect and worked for various architecture and design firms before founding Dear Hunter together with Marlies Vermeulen in 2014. In addition to that practice, he’s senior lecturer Research at the Maastricht Institute of Arts, part of Zuyd University. He has published various articles on Archined, platform for architecture and design and is guest lecturer/jury member at several universities in The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, currently at the FH Aachen and Amsterdam University of the Arts.
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Marlies Vermeulen (Tielt B, 1986) has a background in architecture and works as a cartopologist. She aims at representing daily life reality of our spatial environment by by stretching up existing spatial notation systems and using anthropological techniques. Besides her independent practice Dear Hunter (www.dearhunter.eu) she also teaches at several universities and works on a PhD research (to be finished in 2026), a Cotutelle agreement between FH Aachen, Faculty of Architecture; Maastricht University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; Zuyd Hogeschool, Research Centre What Art Knows. Lately she started the Institute of Cartopology (www.cartopology.institute) to share Cartopology to a broader public.
About the lecture: In search for mountains: on how to become a cartopologist
This lecture takes the audience through the development of cartopology as a research practice. Drawing on the work of Dear Hunter, Remy Kroese explores how everyday spatial realities can be investigated through fieldwork, observation, and cartographic experimentation. The search for “mountains” serves as a metaphor for discovering new perspectives in reading and mapping space. The lecture offers insights into how one can—step by step—become a cartopologist, and how maps can evolve to help us understand complex societal and spatial issues.
About the workshop: Corresponding: scale, proportion and orientation
In this hands-on workshop, participants explore how scale, proportion, and orientation shape our perception and representation of space. Using cartopological principles, they learn to correspond with their surroundings: looking closely, measuring, positioning, and translating observations into map forms that move beyond traditional notation. Through practical exercises, participants discover how spatial relationships become visible in new ways when perspectives shift—both literally and figuratively—and how mapmaking becomes a tool for understanding how a place truly operates.
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Date and location:
- Tuesday December 9th 2025
- Begijnhof Hasselt, Zuivelmarkt 33, 3500 Hasselt (visiting adress)
- 10h00 - 12h00, Kapittelzaal: Lecture
- Open for everyone
- 13h00 - 16h00, house #10/0.22: Workshop
- Only for PhD students / limited to 15 spots
- First come, first served
- To all workshop participants: please bring any materials relevant to the research - both map-related and non-map materials - in printed form
Registration
- Click here to register via Google Form
For PhD students and postdocs, we would like to draw your attention to the cancellation and no-show policy of UHasselt.
More information
Pictures: Jo Glinka
