Theses 2025
KABK Graphic Design

Landing page by Maja, Patrycja, Sára, Nu, and Joana.

Navigating (Anti-)Feminism and Gender Politics in Contemporary European Right-Wing Movements

The 2023 Dutch elections revealed a troubling shift toward right-wing politics, especially among young voters. As a feminist, I am concerned by the rise of women in right-wing leadership roles, given their movements often undermine women's autonomy and reinforce patriarchal structures. My research explores the motivations behind women's involvement in these politics, the tension between feminism and right-wing ideology, and the sociocultural factors influencing this participation, using historical and contemporary perspectives.

How do we engage in the habit of mapping while navigating a reality that is inherentl constructed? What happens when those assigned to create meaning—whether through physical maps or digital platforms— impose their beliefs; and how does this influence our collective memory and understanding of place?

This thesis explores the concept of mapping as a means of reflecting human efforts to comprehend and structure the world, emphasizing its significance in shaping our perception of reality and memory. Mapping is presented as both a cognitive and creative process. While cartography plays a fundamental role in how we navigate and make sense of our surroundings, mapping also involves the organization, interpretation, and understanding of experiences, memory, and space.

What role can informed design play in supporting people with vaginismus?

We all know about sex, we all know women, and we all know pain, but why haven’t we heard of vaginismus? Exploring medical, historical, and social context of the condition, useful design frameworks and speculating opportunities.

How can communities take matters into their own hands and organize grassroots parties, outside of mainstream leisure spaces, as a way to meet essential needs of their community?

How can communities take matters into their own hands and organize grassroots parties, outside of mainstream leisure spaces, as a way to meet essential needs of their community? This thesis explores that question by examining historical examples such as Jamaican sound system culture, Bronx block parties, and early underground disco, alongside field research from Marseille. These parties reclaim and transform spaces, often designed for capitalist-oriented functions, into hubs of community-building self-expression, and collective joy.

How did graphic design in Romania evolve throughout the 20th century, and what role did political and cultural shifts play in shaping its visual identity?

How has graphic design shaped Romania’s visual identity in the 20th century? This research explores periodical publications, revealing how design evolved from Western influences to communist propaganda, shaping perception and national identity.

Rat and human relations

This paper uncovers the quiet, yet ever-present relationship between the rat and the human. Motivated by my irrational fear of these small-ish rodents, I researched why the rat has gained its pejorative connotation here in the West. In the following chapters I’ll examine how history and culture have shaped its identity in society, from the Black Death of the Middle Ages and animated cartoons to religious mythology and demining initiatives ultimately posing the question: Can we imagine a future of coexistence with them?

How can tourist-mode facilitate escaping platform traps and algorithm-induced decision-making?

How can tourist-mode facilitate escaping platform traps and algorithm-induced decision-making? The condition of contemporary tourism examined through the analysis of historical records, media theory, net criticism, philosophy and social media platforms themselves.

Hormonal contraceptive realities

Who is Yasmin? How can Yasmin make us feel? What do we not know about Yasmin? Are we allowed to be unhappy with Yasmin? This thesis explores the complex relationship womxn have with hormonal contraceptives, highlighting gaps in medical research and communication that leave them unaware of the full physical and mental impacts. A key focus is the branding of contraceptives with female names—Yasmin, Mirena, Zarah—framing them as trusted companions. Through personal writings, I personify ‘Yasmin,’ comparing birth control use to navigating relationships. Motivated by personal and shared experiences, this research critiques gender bias in the pharmaceutical industry and societal expectations, advocating for transparency and inclusive research into womxn’s health.

What happens upstream?

What can a journey along a canal in the Netherlands bring you? Analyzing both inside and outside of the surface, it’s a consideration of whether we are still safe in the future in the dikes. What can we learn from listening to entities? Further down, it opens the countries fight and paradoxes towards the beaver and its complex relationship in the landscape. Fieldwork with a forest ranger will offer a new scope on a threat inside our dikes, and a broken 5,000-year-old relic may hold the answer to all uncertain questions. A group of fat bikers pass by, a disappointing UFO landing site, and a fish doorbell offer unexpected perspectives on coexistence. What happens upstream? The current is drawing me in to know what happens at the end.

How can design celebrate the accidental absence sourced from containers in the urban landscape?

I hope one leaves this theoretical interlude with eyes open wider and mind keener to absorb the surroundings in a more purposeful way. It is about a way of looking, a mindset and a tool for all designers to treat absence in a refreshing way. An offer to reflect on the accidental and let it happen, further embrace it when possible.

What is a sound if we listen beyond our ears and how does it change the role of listening?

This is a story of a Dominican Uber courier and his JBL speaker, ultrasounds, a hermit tripping 700 years ago, a dead man speaking on stage and sonic ghosts, Buen Vivir and active listening.

How do states and corporations use technology-based surveillance systems to control our mobility and identity?

This thesis critically examines the phenomenon in which essential human mobility is restricted by technological systems through spatial boundaries, modern surveillance infrastructure based on artist work, related papers, and platform cases. It explores how airports, automated doors, digital authentication developed within social structures define and control individuals. To achieve this purpose, it will first discuss borders and airport security procedures. Second, it will examine Bruno Latour's actor-network theory, focusing on how doors facilitate approval and exclusion, as well as the role of transparent materials in their dual function of visibility and obstruction. Finally, identity and travel instincts are shaped by socio-economic transformations extending into both digital and physical realms. It highlights how datafied mobility leading to a ‘control trap’ where convenience reinforces constant tracking.

How do the stories we tell ourselves shape our perceptions of ourselves and history?

This thesis explores the pen’s role in Zimbabwe’s socio-political evolution through graphic design, from colonial oppression to liberation in 1980 and beyond. Using media and family history, it reimagines narratives for self-determination.

Can my life in the Netherlands become the subtitles of my story?

Like the hierarchy between subtitles and main content, I have often felt like a secondary presence— an afterthought, a whisper beneath the noise. In a foreign land, speaking words that don’t quite translate, I wonder: Can I step out of the subtitles and become the main content of my own story?

How do the mechanisms of power domesticate both internet data and wildlife in the DMZ, revealing a paradox between the spaces’ externally depoliticized appearance and their internally power-laden reality?

The 'Green' — symbolizing nature, peace, and profit—blurs the boundaries between the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in Korea and the Internet space, reimagining the internet as a metaphorical forest of DMZ and data as an organic life in this forest.

How can recognizing psychological tests as design translations and interpretations shed light on their functioning as tools of a social, classificatory power and their use as tools for regulating speech, as well as point towards ways in which the visual-structural language that psychological tests employ can be repurposed to invite more open and honest dialogues?

This inquiry is born out of a tension I personally feel between my fascination with the aesthetic quality of psychological tests and an awkwardness with the classificatory power these tests carry. As a translation of this experience, this thesis explores the tensions between psychological tests as medical-scientific instruments, as tools of power, and as works of (graphic) design.

By looking for connections between theatre studies, performance art, performativity of social interactions, and film I wish to explore the significance of a role and narrative in relation to art and design practices.

Theatrum mundi is a concept that describes life as a performance and the world as a stage. This allows us to translate life into stories, our surroundings into a set and objects into props. Are we all just actors playing our part in a strange reality TV programme?

How does the villainised image of the wolf shape the current debate on its return to the Netherlands, and how might alternative storytelling influence perspectives on coexistence with the wild?

The wolf is back in the Netherlands! But which wolf? Throughout history, the wolf has taken on many forms; from a thief to an unwanted body of water to a symbol of the other. These narratives, crafted by human storytellers, have been projected onto the animal, often with underlying intentions.

How does collective crafting affect the feeling of empowerment of the individual, how can the act of making things together bring us closer to others?

This thesis explores collective crafting as a way of processing memories, producing knowledge, and facilitating intergenerational exchange. Through a case study from the Polish countryside it illustrates how collective crafting can help preserve local culture and strengthen connections between generations of women.

How can we recontextualize home videos for sonic exploration?

This research explores the intersection of digital archives on YouTube, personal memory and identity and experimental listening practices. Apple’s “Upload to YouTube” feature enabled the sharing of personal videos which act as archives of everyday life, capturing ephemeral moments through sound and imagery.

This thesis critiques capitalism’s role in commodifying urban spaces and club culture, highlighting the loss of communal spaces and advocating for the reclamation of creative, inclusive environments against corporate control through Rottencore.

How Does The Normalization of Body Collecting in Art, Shaped by Patriarchal Ownership and Nostalgic Desire, Manifest in Society, and How Can a Feminist Killjoy Perspective Critique Male Privatization of the Female Body?

This thesis examines the objectification of the female body in art, shaped by patriarchal systems that reduce women to passive subjects for the male gaze. It critiques the normalization of 'body collecting' throughout history, from Greek statues to Renaissance art, and how these representations reinforce patriarchal values. Drawing on Sarah Ahmed’s concept of the Feminist Killjoy, the thesis challenges the male gaze and the privatization of the female body, offering a critical perspective on how these dynamics perpetuate gender inequality and influence societal power structures.

This thesis explores the relationship between Buddhism and western culture, with an emphasis on the misunderstandings that often occurs. By following the way in which Buddhism was established in the west, this research aims to understand which cultural and historical events have contributed to shaping this misconception. Besides this conceptual outcome, this research aims to understand the role of representation in forming a perception, and reflects on iconography in my own contemporary — Dutch and western — culture.

Should historical buildings be reconstructed or not, and to what extent should they be replicated to maintain their legacy?

This thesis explores the politics of architectural preservation through the case of Børsen’s partial destruction and reconstruction. It questions whether rebuilding should restore an idealized past or embrace material transformation as part of a building’s evolving identity. Through historical analysis and graphic design, the project investigates memory, authenticity, and aesthetics in preservation.

Unlicensed reproduction of media is frequently condemned as unethical, illicit, or even criminal. However, this perspective could overlook the broader economic and ideological structures that shape access to culture and knowledge. Copyright laws, largely driven by corporate interests, create monopolistic systems that prioritise profit over accessibility, reinforcing systemic inequalities by restricting cultural participation to those with lesser financial means. This thesis examines how digital piracy, and the circulation of unlicensed media challenge these structures of ownership, highlighting the connections of intellectual property law and media accessibility. By researching piracy within broader discussions of authorship, originality, and access, this thesis examines how digital media landscapes both reinforce and resist capitalist control. It critically analyses piracy not simply as an act of theft, but a form of resistance against the dominant economic models and offers alternative approaches of media distribution. Through this lens, this thesis investigates the power dynamics embedded in contemporary intellectual property regimes, ultimately questioning who has the right to own, distribute, and engage with media in the digital age.

Camp—the highly stylised, delightfully artificial, or “so bad that it’s good”—is the art of excess, flamboyance and irony. This thesis takes a feminist perspective to trace the oh-so-fabulous history of camp, from its roots in underground gay culture to mainstream visibility, exploring it as a space and playground for queer and feminist resistance.

What does the myth of the werewolf teach us about our relationships with machines?

Wolf-man and man-machine: two dualities in which a wild side which seems to drag down a comparatively more functional side. Analyzing these two manifestations of the desire to tame human nature, this text will reflect on the place of wilderness within a machine society, highlighting the inevitability of shapeshifting between wolf, human, and machine.

What can multispecies storytelling reveal about shared histories on Earth, and how could it guide us towards more sustainable futures?

Through looking at shared origins of life on Earth and weaving human narratives with multispecies accounts, this thesis explores the fundamental interconnection between terrestrial beings and their life-sustaining planet. It examines humankind’s positioning within the natural world, its ontological connection, a cultural disconnection and its many visual representations. Critically addressing the commodification of nature and its role in an untimely ecological collapse, it reimagines alternative worlds built on reciprocity, care, and collective survival.

How are deviations from handwriting standard models interpreted as meaningful across various contexts?

This thesis works through evolving conceptions of the medium of handwriting. It explores the tension between handwriting as a representation of individuality and the imitation of standard models that it requires. In particular it focuses on how deviations from the standard model are interpreted as meaningful across various contexts.

Exploration of homosexual fetish culture and hyper-masculinity through leather as a material of lust.

In what ways has the representation of the sleeping body in art and culture evolved, and what does it reveal about societal views on intimacy and surveillance?

This thesis explores the role of the representation of the sleeper and how it conveys themes of surveillance, intimacy and intrusion. Through an exploration of art history and cultural depictions, it uncovers the underlying motifs associated with the sleeping body.

Can patterns have their own voice as a visual language beyond their ornamental and decorative role?

Have you ever seen a friend wearing a striped shirt? Have you ever considered how many lines make up the stripes or what meaning they might convey? Patterns are deeply embedded in our lives, yet we often overlook them without conscious recognition. Although patterns are among the most immediate forms of visual art in daily life, they have long been undervalued as mere decorative or incidental elements. This thesis aims to explore the potential of patterns as a visual language that goes beyond their ornamental function. By examining the historical and cultural interpretations and uses of patterns, it investigates the conceptual dimensions of patterns.

How do thinking methods affect the process of designing and seeing type?

What are letters? How should they look? This text investigates systems of classification and theories of type as practical but under-utilised design tools, informing metaphysical conceptions of type and allowing one to make and observe what they otherwise may not have.