Interdisciplinarity, the combination of research and the development of practical tools, the access to historical sources and new forms of visualing knowledge are keywords which attract me most in the Digital Culture programme of the Maastricht McLuhan Institute, which I joined in 2001. In fact it brings together work and other hobbies, which I have been doing in the last few years.

Background
I studied Art History and Archeology at Groningen University with a specialisation in the history of architecture, townplanning and planning sciences. With an even greater interest in context, than in form and content, I explored cultural history, history of science and technique, military history and the history of cartography. (List of publications and lectures) In my doctoral-thesis: " 'Papiere Bolwercken', De introductie van de Italiaanse steden- en vestingbouw in de Nederlanden (1540-1609) en het gebruik van tekeningen" (Groningen 1991), I discussed the dissemination of knowledge of Italian engineers in the Netherlands via drawings and their role in the diffusion of the "renaissance" culture in the Netherlands. I combined the research for this dissertation with a part-time job as a librarian/university teacher at the Istituto Universitario Olandese di Storia dell'Arte in Florence, where I lived for eight years.

Since my return in the Netherlands, I have been working for different universities and research institutes. Between 1992-1995 I worked as a senior-researcher of the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO-postdoc) at the University of Groningen on an annotated publication of an uncompleted treatise on architecture and townplanning by the Dutch scholar Simon Stevin. In the following two years I worked as a fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW) for the University of Utrecht on a research entitled: "Of marble columns and wooden piles. The foundations of architectural theory in the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th century". After this period of splendid isolation, I left my study for work in the cultural field. As an Inspector of Cultural Heritage (of Movable Goods) for the Ministery of Education, Culture and Sciences, I had the opportunity to visit many museums, collections and other storage rooms and to learn about the practical problems concerning the registration , documentation and conservation of cultural objects of all sorts.

Future
Within the vaster mission of the Maastricht McLuhan Institute I see it as a challenge to explore the historical and cultural dimensions of digital knowledge. Hereto, I am preparing a research programme entitled: Knowledge of Architecture and Architecture of Knowledge. On one side it can serve as a framework for the study of topics ranging from architectural treatises to smart buildings, from cabinets to virtual museums, from historical cartography to digital atlasses, from town plans to cyber-cities. On the other hand it comprehends the history of documentation, classification and standardization of knowledge, especially of cultural heritage, in relation to the above mentioned historical disciplines. From practical experience as a librarian, user of archives and museum inspector I hope to play a role in formulating the requirements of the tools which in the end can provide a more comprehensive access to civilisation's collective memory.

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