Droombeek

www.droombeek.nl

On May 13th, 2000, a fireworks factory exploded in the Roombeek neighbourhood in Enschede. After such a traumatic event stories can be a source of power to take up the thread again. The houses, factories and streets which usually serve as a reference for the collective memory, are all gone in Roombeek. With the help of personal stories, photos and GPS technology Droombeek (droom means “dream”) brings the past and present back to life. On the website stories are linked to a location in the neighbourhood. The initiators entered the neighbourhood themselves to write down the stories of the residents. Art students made short films to accompany the stories and locations. Based on these portraits a number of walks has been put out in Roombeek. Residents and everyone else interested can follow a walk with a PDA and listen to the stories of present and former residents. Several organizations got involved and gave Droombeek a permanent (physical) place in the neighbourhood. Many of these organizations are located in Roombeek. The Droombeek website offers a solid base on which residents can further build. They can add stories and photos by themselves, or call for the help of welfare officers in the neighbourhood. This way an impressive image is growing of the neighbourhood in the past and present time, without exclusively zooming in on the catastrophe. Droombeek is designed for Roombeek, but also offers a lot of potential for applications in other cities.

Final products

The website uses the Movable Type CMS, to which a function is added with which text, image and sound can be linked to physical locations. These become visible on a map on the site, and on the PDA with GPS. Four walks have been designed, consisting of thirty stories and five art films. The walks can be downloaded to the PDA via Avantgo, a well-known programme for PDA content. Here one can find the manual with information about the project’s organization, the technical specifications, and the lessons learned. The templates and the application for the PDA are on www.droombeek.nl

Impact

On May 13th, 2005, five years after the fireworks catastrophe, the Droombeek website was opened, preceding a silent march in memory of the victims. This caused a lot of attention from the press. In May about 1,000 persons visited the website. Visitors also entered via links on other websites, like the ones of the municipality of Enschede, the Roombeek project agency, the housing corporation, and the monument Vuurwerkramp (“Fireworks catastrophe”). The initiators are regularly being invited by the project agency to think about developments in the neighbourhood. Droombeek will probably get a physical location in the neighbourhood in cooperation with the Huis van Verhalen (“House of stories”) and the museums that are based in the neighbourhood. Chances for a lasting growth are high, certainly considering the interest from other cities. The personal walk, which discloses location-tied content on a pocket computer, can also be used and designed for surroundings other than neighbourhoods that are to be reconstructed.

Contact

Stichting Droombeek Peter Dubois en Edward Mac Gillavry
www.droombeek.nl