When I started studying Cultural Anthropology I of course had to read a lot of theory in order to understand the topics, language and the methods anthropologists do to research. I actually loved all the reading, because it is so different from classes on WdkA.

I kept hearing teachers from WdkA ask me: "How will you incorporate this new study and set of skills in your graphic design work?". To be honest, at first I just wanted to learn more about what interests me. I was not thinking of ways to mix my two studies. But when I was starting to get comfortable with my study system, I wanted to explore the field of visual ethnography on how you could express theories, stories and experiences through visuals. I wanted to make this really my own. I love research and I am always learning new techniques to do research. But the research I did in graphic design was really different from how I learned to research as an anthropologist. One was mainly based on visual research and the other on language and observing.

After the competency assessments of last year, I got a few points of feedback on dealing with my external interest in anthropology. "Je presenteert een waslijst van zaken die je nog niet hebt aan gepakt en die wil aanpakken (van thema\'s tot technieken). Maar het is onduidelijk hoe je dat gaat doen en waarom deze van belang zijn voor jouw specieke artistieke ontwikkeling. Welke tool past bij het ontwikkelen van een ontwerphouding die past bij welk thema?
Je moet hier echt stappen in maken om je kritische houding te gaan vertalen naar ontwerphouding." and "Je geeft interessante referentiekaders aan, die voorbij grafisch ontwerpen gaan. Je mag je kritischer verhouden tot deze contexten. Verdiep je meer in het ontwerpend dat past bij de onderwerpen waar jij je mee bezighoudt".

During that time of the year, last March, I was really still figuring wether I wanted to quit school, or try to do something external and add that to my graphic design work. Now, after months of studying both graphic design and anthropology, I developed my design approach. I wanted to create this 'tool' that would fit to my multidisciniplary approach. Like I said before, I love research. And this has been my most used tool when I start new projects. So when I thinking of my artistic vision and design approach, research had to be an important part.