The vulnerability of freedom
Studio Louter, Nationaal Monument Oranjehotel /
Sound design, voice recordings and mix /
Interactive multisensory educational installation
2024 /
From 1940 to 1945, more than 25,000 people were imprisoned in the Oranjehotel to await interrogation and trial. Today the former prison is a museum and a remembrance centre. For its new educational programme, the museum has opened up row C – comprising 16 original cells – for the first time.
Through a multisensory interactive experience, pupils experience the fragility of the Dutch constitutional state under the Nazis’ totalitarian regime. Light, props, images and sound bring former prisoners’ stories to life. Again and again, the question arises: Why weren’t these people living in freedom? Spending half an hour in a cell gives visitors a sense of how dark, cramped and lonely it is.
For us as sound designers, it was an intensive project involving 16 cells, 6 audio channels per cell and an interactive story lasting 30 minutes. We ended up with around 950 minutes of audio content to export. But the biggest challenge was crafting the stories themselves (8 original storylines for the educational program + 8 museum-versions).
These stories feature numerous voices and soundscapes, developed in close collaboration with the Oranjehotel and studio Louter.
A lot of tech, set design, educational materials, and beautiful lighting design complete the interactive program. The fact that these stories involve people who were actually detained at Oranjehotel makes the project particularly special. During the recordings and sound-mixing in the actual cells, this awareness often came to the forefront. It was very moving to work in and for a place with such impactful histories.
