AKI student Willemijn Doornebos (3rd year Crossmedia Design) is the designer and creator of this year’s pop prizes from Overijssel. Poppunt Overijssel presented the three prizes made by Willemijn at the Booster Festival that was held (online) last Saturday 10 April. It concerns the Popprijs Overijssel 2021 (won by Junte Uiterwijk known as rapper Sticks), the Pop Promotion Prize (for project leader Pim Kokkeler of the Booster Festival) and the prize for the Best Track 2020 (won by the group GIRLSGIRLSGIRLS with ‘Whatever’). Roy Witte, Commissioner for Culture of the province of Overijssel announced the winners and a video team surprised them at their front door with the prizes.
Dopamine molecule
Willemijn modeled the molecule of the neurotransmitter dopamine (2- (3,4-dihydroxyphenyl) ethanamine), which in our body plays an important role in reward-motivated behavior and ensures the experience of happiness, pleasure, joy and well-being. For each price Willemijn made the molecule in a different material, one of brass, one of wood and one of plexiglass.
The fact that Willemijn’s dopamine concept fits in perfectly with the objectives that Poppunt Overijssel strives for is evident from the text that was spoken during the awards:
“People have been making music together for many years. It is one of the first forms of communication that connects us as humans. Certainly in the time in which we now live, that connection is extra important. With the trophy of the 2021 Popprijs, we therefore go back to the core, to what causes that alliance and that is Dopamine. That small molecule that runs through our bodies when we make music together. That little molecule that gives us that wonderful euphoric feeling. That has always connected us. We are now giving that small, but incredibly important molecule a stage and handing it out to those people who have devoted themselves the most to Overijssel pop music in the past year. They have helped ensure that the dopamine in all of us flows through the body and makes us feel connected. “
