Den Dolder Travel Guide, 2014

‘If you imagine it without any of the crazy people, then it’s a nicely wooded spot here.’ 

Den Dolder Travel Guide is a journey to the mental landscape of a psychiatric institution in the words of its inhabitants. For this publication the residents of psychiatric institution ‘William Arntsz Hoeve/Altrecht GGZ’ in Den Dolder, Utrecht serve as the guides: after all, they know more about life here than anyone else.

Den Dolder Travel Guide provides a portrait of a place, not a person: contributions in text and image by over thirty participants are interwoven thematically, focusing on different aspects of life on these grounds. The publication is built up solely of their contributions. The publication is characterized by its special way of text-editing, in which different voices are combined to provide a collaborative picture that is as layered and rich as it is focused.

The book experiments with new ways of using the canvas of the book: graphic designer Hansje van Halem combines different fonts in single paragraphs in order to allow the reader to ‘feel’ when a switch of speaker occurs, and extra digital content is added with Augmented Reality. AR is used in two ways: 1) to include ‘translations’ of various text into movement on location by the dancers of Random Collision, and 2) to show how the editing process took place.

The contents for the publication were gathered during a residency in The Fifth Season, an artist’s residence on the grounds of the Willem Arntsz Hoeve / Altrecht ggz psychiatric institution in Den Dolder, where I lived and worked for 3 months.  The Fifth Season was established in 1998 with the aim of bringing society and psychiatry
closer together.

Ordering the book 
Travelguide Den Dolder can be ordered though the website of The Fifth Season, and costs 15 euro’s + postage. Please note that the publication is Dutch. An 18-page sampler in English is included.

Specifics
Concept & realisation: Jantine Wijnja
Graphic Design: Hansje van Halem
Technical realization AR: AugmentNL
Dancers in AR:  Ido Batash and Laura Meuris, Random Collision
Video in AR: Jan Klug
Edition: 800
Publisher: The Fifth Season, 2014
isbn 978-90-822437-0-3

Den Dolder Travel Guide on the web
A number of online resources about the project can be found online, all in dutch: A preview and 3 articles about my stay can be found at hard//hoofd. A radio interview with ‘Radio 1 Nieuwsshow’ is here and an item by VPRO’s ‘Nooit meer Slapen’ is also available.

Den Dolder Travel Guide is made possible by the kind support of the following funds and sponsors
Mondriaan Fonds, KfHeinfonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Stichting Stokroos, Layar, and all those who contributed through crowdfunding at Voordekunst.nl