Catelijne van Middelkoop

Reflective Practitioner | Assistant Professor | Co-Director

The Randstad, Netherlands

About

Catelijne van Middelkoop is Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Pictorial Research Lab at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) where she was a Professor of Practice and Chair of Visual Communication Design between 2016-2022. Next to this, Catelijne acts as Head (a.i.) of the ‘ArtScience’ departments of the Royal Conservatoire (KC) and Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague. As an education designer she creates and curates experimental learning environments where knowledge can be produced through making. This was also the central focus of her PhD research, and the main objective of a four-year research program she led as a Research Professor/Practor at SintLucas, a creative secondary vocational school in Eindhoven and Boxtel, The Netherlands, between 2020 and 2024. Besides being active in (redesigning) art and design education, Dr. Van Middelkoop is Co-Director of Strange Attractors, a design research studio specializing in the development of methods, tools, & critical perspectives to produce insight toward measurable change. Since 2001, Strange Attractors has collaborated with partners across various practices, institutions, and objectives to refine and realize tangible results. Catelijne’s main (artistic) research (through design) interests include the influence of emerging technologies on the adaptiveness of cultural institutions, the role of human creativity and craftsmanship in a predominantly digital age co-created with/dictated by machines, as well as speculative and foremost situated futures for art, design and engineering education. Van Middelkoop holds a doctoral degree from the University of Groningen, has an MFA in 2D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art, a degree in Graphic & Typographic Design from The Royal Academy of Art/KABK and studied Art History and Archeology at The University of Amsterdam. As a strategic advisor and future thinker she has been a member of several Advisory Committees of the Creative Industries Fund NL, board member of The Association of Dutch Designers (BNO), and ambassador for the new ‘vision on design’ (2023-2030) for the Municipality of Eindhoven. She is currently a member of the ‘Monitoring Committee Design’ at the Dutch ‘Council for Culture’ (Raad voor Cultuur).

Experience

  • Head (a.i.) ArtScience | Royal Conservatoire (KC) & Royal Academy of Art (KABK) at Royal Academy of Art, The Hague | Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (KABK)
    Feb 2025 - Present · 1 yr 5 mos

  • Lid monitorcommissie Ontwerp at Raad voor Cultuur
    Jan 2025 - Present · 1 yr 6 mos

  • Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam (7 yrs 7 mos)
    • Lecturer Critical Perspectives
      Sep 2024 - Present · 1 yr 10 mos

    • (Sustainable) Context Developer
      Jan 2019 - Aug 2024 · 5 yrs 8 mos

    • Research Lecturer and Practice Leader a.i. Commercial Practices
      Sep 2021 - Jul 2023 · 1 yr 11 mos

  • TU Delft | Industrial Design Engineering (10 yrs 6 mos)
    • Co-Director Pictorial Research Lab
      Nov 2023 - Present · 2 yrs 8 mos

    • Design Fellow
      Jul 2022 - Present · 4 yrs

    • Vision and Depiction Conference | Co-organizer
      Jun 2023 - Present · 3 yrs 1 mo

      A conference about pictorial production and perception which aims to bring artists, designers, and scientists together to discuss various overlapping themes based on the Vision and Depiction framework: visionanddepiction.github.io

  • Strange Attractors Design (25 yrs 5 mos)
    • Human at The AI-gency
      Oct 2016 - Present · 9 yrs 9 mos

    • Co-Director at Strange Attractors Design
      Feb 2001 - Present · 25 yrs 5 mos

      Strange Attractors is a design research studio specializing in the development of methods, tools, & critical perspectives to produce insight toward measurable change. Since 2001, Strange Attractors has collaborated with partners across various practices, institutions, and objectives to refine and realize results.