Contaminated Ecologies workshop

On the 20th of November, the workshop "Contaminated Ecologies" was held in Rotterdam, hosted by Tomasz Dudek and Theodor Reinhardt. During this hands-on mapping workshop, participants studied relationships between various actants in the Port of Rotterdam, tracing links between logistical operations, infrastructural developments, biodiversity, geomorphology, political struggle and shadow economies.

Tomasz Dudek and Theodor Reinhardt kicked off the workshop with an opening lecture about critical cartography and ecological mapping, emphasizing the interconnectedness of social, ecological, and economic processes in the context of the Port of Rotterdam.

Participants were divided into five groups, each assigned a different entry point to approach the research and mapping exercise collectively: Organic, Non-organic, Institutional, Cultural and Symbolic, as well as Flows of Goods and Capital. Each group researched their domain, shared findings on a collective Miro board, and developed matters of concern, moving from factual research to context-driven narratives that abandon top-down views for situated perspectives.

Group Summaries:

Organic:

• Focused on macro- and micro-organisms – particularly algae and sea shells–and their role and position in the development and operation of the port.
• With a particular focus on the long durée, considering deep-time transformations that enabled many material realities we see today (sea shells turning into sand / algae turning into oil.)
• Highlighting an indebtedness the anthropocentric operation of the port has to those organisms.

Non-organic:

• Studying primarily movements of soil and sediment, the group took up the position of a retired fisherman from Hook van Holland whose environment-world has been severely impacted by the development of the Port; particularly by the Maasvlakte.
• Examined its impact on his livelihood, social connections and accessibility to everyday destinations.

Institutions:

• Looking at Shell through the lens of environmental activism, explicitly skeptical of corporate greenwashing.
• Studying potentialities of protest and disruption in the Port territory and beyond.

Ideas and Identities:

• Developed the idea of “purification” and “ecological engineering”
• Found synthesis in the character of a swimmer who wants to swim in the Nieuwe Maas / Nieuwe Waterweg, from Erasmusbrug to Hoek van Holland.
• Representative of a larger ideological tendency to make things more “in touch with nature,” “reverting” certain conditions to a supposedly “natural” state, which nevertheless requires extensive engineering effort to accomplish that.

Goods and Capital:

• Focused on the flux of cocaine through the port
• Taking up the perspective of a drug trafficker, concerned with ensuring the safe passage of his product through the territory and challenged by surveillance and law enforcement
• Expand our understanding of logistics and territories of shadow economies in the Port

Collective Outcomes:

After initial group work, research findings were cross-examined to reveal connections and overlaps. Each group created a map showing the spatial extent of their matter of concern, developing idiosyncratic notational systems to illustrate relationships and intensities.

highlighted unexpected overlaps, collisions and alliances in places where these environment-worlds shared territory.

In the final discussion, participants reflected on how mapping from different entry points brought new perspectives, complexity, and shared understanding to the issues affecting the Port of Rotterdam. The day demonstrated that ecological issues in Rotterdam are deeply entangled with economic, social, institutional, and cultural dynamics. The mapping approach helped uncover these interrelations by moving from isolated matters of facts to situated “matters of concern,” making the complexity more visible and actionable for collective reflection and future action.​

What's next?

Join us on the 27th of November: 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.

Register here

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: A Place to Live, Not to Leave (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.

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