Contaminated Ecologies

The contaminated ecologies evening lecture brings together researchers, designers, and policymakers to reflect on the outcomes of the workshop and to extend its inquiry into the realm of territorial futures.

Presented by Theodor Reinhardt, the lecture revisits the collective mapping exercises that explored shifting ecological and infrastructural realities in the Port of Rotterdam. Through this lens, contamination is understood not simply as pollution, but as a transformation of relations between humans, non-humans and infrastructural systems.

The lecture serves as a critical reflection for how mapping can serve as a medium for navigating complexity without reducing it – turning abstract matters of fact into legible, shared matters of concern. Participants will gain insight into how cartography can become a tool for both research and speculation.

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The workshop

The “Contaminated Ecologies” workshop, held on November 20, 2025, in Rotterdam, brought together participants to explore the Port of Rotterdam as a complex, entangled ecological network. Guided by Tomasz Dudek and Theodor Reinhardt, the workshop began with a lecture on critical cartography, emphasizing the interconnectedness of social, ecological, and economic issues.

Participants worked in five groups, each focusing on a different entry point: Organic (living organisms and health impacts), Non-organic (infrastructure, sediments, pollution), Institutions (governance, law enforcement, regulatory interactions), Ideas and Identities (cultural narratives, activism, protest sites), and Goods and Capital (economic flows, trade infrastructure). Each group mapped relevant issues and locations, identifying how their focus intertwined with others across the port.

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speakers

Tomasz Dudek is a transdisciplinary architect and researcher working at the intersections of spatial design, theory, and environmental inquiry. Educated across Poland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, he holds an MSc in Architecture from TU Delft, where his work focused on architectural theory, critical cartography, and posthumanism. Professionally, he has collaborated with Christ & Gantenbein, Benthem Crouwel Architects, and contributed to projects for the Venice Biennale. His work has been exhibited at MAPS. New Cartographies, New Narratives (2023), Dutch Design Week (2019), and the IASS Conference (2019) in Barcelona.

Theodor Reinhardt is a transdisciplinary researcher and designer interested in material and operational complexities of and between territories, infrastructures and systems – working with spaces, objects, maps, graphics, videos, exhibitions and texts. His work was published in DATAPOLIS (2023) and Atlantis Magazine (2022), as well as exhibited at MAPS. New Cartographies, New Narratives (2023), Indigenous Intelligence (2025), Countryside 2 (2025) and the 17th Venice Biennale of Architecture (2021) as part of Dogma. He has taught at the Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam and Amsterdam Academy of Architecture.

program

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Nature-Culture Collective

The Nature-Culture Collective operates with hybrids, cyborgs and hyphens. It aims to challenge dichotomies, divisions and disciplines. Its approach is strongly rooted in agential materialism and post-humanism. It works with and between spaces, objects, images, maps and films. It was founded by Tomasz Dudek and Theodor Reinhardt. It is open to exchange, inquiries and collaborations, get in touch. info@nature-culture.xyz