Maps unfold when we least expect it
#100dayproject2026
Many academic insights stem from reading or data analysis; they follow an established path: identify gaps in knowledge, propose a hypothesis, set a methodology, prove or disprove the hypothesis, return to the gaps and suggest alternatives. Such insights are rigorous, and often excellent, but can also lack imagination and openness, and cannot handle unpredictability or questions without answers. Is there another way? Can transgressive research follow the questitons, rather than the answers? Can i let our academic imagination run wild for a bit?
Last year, I was extremely fortunate to take part in “Transgressive Methods at Skagen Institute” - a workshop that involved creative and artistic methods and their role in research. In one of the sessions we considered what does “transgressive research” mean to each of us.
Paper and scissors again. Or rather, this time, it was paper tears and hole punchers of different sizes, and a bit of tape, to experiment with, and experince, what following a map might feel like, when the map unfolds as we look at it. A mixture of media; layers of paper, tape and paint; hand draw directions; and hand writen questions without answers. What is transgressive research? Can I walk as a poem?
Being in that workshop simultaneously as a researcher and an artist was a rare, and precious experience. I revisit this experience now, as I am about to embark on this year’s #100dayproject, to spend 100 days exploring how to bring together research and illustration into one (dragon) body and mind; how to illustrate as a researcher, and how to do social science research as a visual artist.
Unlike my previous projects, this time I am not experimenting with, or finessing a medium. Instead, I am illustrating a journey, following the map as it unfolds. There are no prompts. And even with some basic visual coherence - one cardboard card a day- there are no landmarks. And the card is just a springboard anyway.
Can I unfold the map as I weave it? Can I walk as an illustration?
