A Cluster of 17 Cases

A Cluster of 17 Cases

Detail from A Cluster of 17 Cases installation

A CLUSTER OF 17 CASES A Cluster Of 17 Cases was created following Blast Theory’s artist residency at the World Health Organization in Geneva. The work is inspired by the stories of the 17 unsuspecting people who stayed on the 9th floor of the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong on the night of February 21st 2003.

These 17 people were subsequently identified as spreading the SARS virus to at least 546 people around the globe.

A Cluster Of 17 Cases was first presented as an interactive museum installation in the Museum of the City of New York in 2018 and has since been presented at Tai Kwun in Hong Kong (2019) and the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, Leiden, Netherlands (2020).

In 2020, the work has a new relevance for a public that has a radically different perspective on pandemics. Our response to this new context is to create a new digital version of the work.

The online version is currently in production for presentation in 2021.

A Cluster Of 17 Cases is funded by Wellcome.

A Cluster of 17 Cases > About Blast Theory

SELECTED AWARDS 2019 Winner of the 2019 Trailblazer Award, IndieCade for contributions to the field of games.

SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS

A still from 2097: We Made Ourselves Over

BLAST THEORY ABOUT Blast Theory is an artists group exploring social and political questions through interactive art, placing the public at the centre of their work. Led

by Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr and Nick Tandavanitj, the group draws on popular culture, performance, technology and games, the work often blurring the boundaries between the real and the fictional.

Blast Theory has shown work at the Venice Biennale, Sundance Film Festival, ICC in Tokyo, the Barbican and Tate Britain. They have been commissioned by Channel 4, the BBC and the Royal Opera House. Residencies include Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, the South

Australian Government, the ICA in London and the World Health Organization in Geneva.

The artists work closely with researchers and scientists and have collaborated with the Mixed Reality Lab at the University of Nottingham since 1997, co-authoring over 45 research papers. The artists teach and lecture internationally including at the Sorbonne, Stanford University and the Royal College of Art. They curated the Screen series for Live Culture at Tate Modern. The group has been nominated for four BAFTAs, won the Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica and won the Nam June Paik Art Center Award in 2016.

Blast Theory is based in Brighton, UK.

Spit Spreads Death: The Parade (2019) a parade through Philadelphia to commemorate the 1918 flu epidemic.

Bloodyminded (2018) a live streamed interactive feature film broadcast to cinemas across Europe for 14-18 Now.

You Start It (2017) a major retrospective at the Nam June Paik Arts Center in South Korea.

Karen (2015) an app that psychologically profiles you as you play.

A Machine To See With (2010) the world’s first locative cinema commission shown at the Sundance Film Festival.

Ulrike And Eamon Compliant (2009) adopt the role of a terrorist as you walk through the city in this piece for the 53rd Venice Biennale.

Can You See Me Now? (2001) and Uncle Roy All Around You (2003) receive acclaim as groundbreaking location based games.

2018 The Lovie Awards - Silver Winner in Best Use of Interactive Video for 2097: We Made Ourselves Over.

2016 Nam June Paik Art Center Prize.

British Interactive Media Association - Winner in Data Category, Best of British Digital for Karen.

Festival du nouveau cinéma - Winner, Innovation Award for Karen.

2010 International Mobile Gaming Awards Winner Best Real World Game, Ulrike and Eamon Compliant.

2005 BAFTA Awards – Nomination for Interactive Arts and Technical & Social Innovation.

2003 Prix Ars Electronica – Winner of the Golden Nica for Interactive Art. 2002 BAFTA Awards – Nomination for Interactive Arts Award.

2000 BAFTA Awards – Nomination for Interactive Arts.

A Cluster of 17 Cases > Background

THE EVENTS THAT INSPIRED THE WORK Detail from Blast Theory’s residency at the World Health Organization, 2018

A CLUSTER OF 17 CASES: BACKGROUND

WHO RESIDENCY

On February 21st 2003 a doctor from Guangdong in China checked into room 911 of the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong to attend a family wedding.

During the night he felt ill with SARS.

In 2018 Blast Theory were the first Artists in Residence at the World Health Organization in Geneva. As part of our residency, we made three trips. We were embedded in the Strategic Health Operations Centre (“SHOC”), which monitors epidemics and pandemics across the world. The WHO monitors 500,000 incoming signals per month. At 9.00am each morning a senior team review the gathered intelligence and coordinate international collaboration in response to threats.

By the morning 16 people on the same floor of the hotel were infected. None of them met the doctor. No staff at the hotel contracted the disease. As the 17 guests checked out, they took SARS across the world.

We also spent time in the library and the WHO archive. There we discovered the story of the Metropole Hotel.

This was a classic superspreading event; a moment when a disease jumps from a single outbreak in one country to become a global problem. And yet it is also a mystery: how did so many people get infected? This prompted epidemiologists to apply their detective skills to the Metropole for months and years afterwards.

A case that became so well known that the hotel changed its name.

A Cluster of 17 Cases > Background

Detail from the installation at the Museum of the City of New York

A CLUSTER OF 17 CASES: INSTALLATION The installation is an interactive work centred on a model of the 9th floor of the Metropole Hotel.

Visitors listen to a fictional first person account of the events of that night. A separate channel plays an edited interview with Dr Mike Ryan from the World Health Organization describing how he works with risk, uncertainty and the unknown.

The accounts are synchronised with LED lights embedded into the model.

and a journey towards an unknown destination has become a global experience.

With so many people now directly experiencing the fear and anxiety triggered by an outbreak, there is a new hunger for understanding and reflection on uncertainty and the unknown.

Pandemics are no longer an abstract concern;

One source of solace is the knowledge and expertise of the public health community. For thousands of people in that community, a pandemic like COVID-19 has been expected and planned for. The rigour and ethical commitment

of those experts has been developed through multiple previous outbreaks of infectious disease.

Our response to this new context is to create a new digital version of the work.

A Cluster of 17 Cases > Online

A CLUSTER OF 17 CASES ONLINE: NEW FOR 2021

AUDIENCE REACH AND MARKETING Primary target audiences for A Cluster Of 17 Cases are medical history and science enthusiasts; visual arts audiences; and culturally engaged audiences seeking alternative Covid-19 stories. The work also appeals to digital arts fans and the UX design/broader design community.

THE ONLINE WORK The web version of A Cluster of 17 Cases takes visitors inside a moment of disease transmission. It brings the prickle of fear triggered by the touch of a public handrail. It dramatises the arbitrary nature of a pandemic.

And it captures the dedication and tenacity of epidemiologists.

The new work is a mobile centric website.

On arrival the visitor gets a short introduction to the work. Then full screen video shot within the aluminium model of the Metropole Hotel places you emerging from the elevator into the lobby on the 9th floor at ‘eye level’. The

disconnect provided by the scale and the texture of the milled aluminium creates an uncanny atmosphere. A woman’s voice tells the story of her arrival on the night of February 21st 2003 as the camera swings towards the corridors and then pauses. You choose whether to turn left or right and the video leads you into the corridor you have chosen as the story continues. As you move down the corridor, you can choose to enter one of the rooms. Inside you learn the identity of the person who stayed there and the onward journey they took. You have made your choice and your fate is now entwined with theirs. (If you want to explore another room, you can restart the experience.)

And when you emerge from ‘your’ room, the scene has changed. Now smoke emerges from under a doorway by the elevator block and flows through the corridors. A male voiceover describes the smoke testing undertaken by epidemiologists and the detective work taken to contact trace every visitor to the hotel.

Wellcome will amplify marketing of the new online work, as will previous and current presenters of the installation. The Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, which commissioned Blast Theory in 2019 to create a parade commemorating 1918 flu victims, will also boost marketing.

The experience is bookended with a contextual section, describing the full history of the event and its contemporary relevance to the new outbreak. Mike Ryan’s interview about risk and uncertainty is embedded as a video.

Blast Theory will create promotional assets (short video teasers, sound clips and images) to market the work. Possible additional online activity could include talks, live conversations and interviews with the artists and - with support from Wellcome - with medical experts, epidemiologists and WHO staff.

A Cluster of 17 Cases > Technical

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS AND ACCESSIBILITY ONLINE EXPERIENCE

MUSEUM INSTALLATION

ACCESSIBILITY The online experience will conform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and contains provisions for deaf and visually impaired people as described below.

Closed captioning » Closed captions provided for all spoken text » Device’s captions settings used by default » Facility to turn captions on/off

Screen reader » Specified with ARIA labelling and tab order on all screens » Tested for tab/gesture navigation in iOS Voiceover and Android Talkback

Language » Served in English and a second language if required » Alternate languages supported via Google page translation

MINIMUM DEVICE REQUIREMENTS Android 7.0+ » Chrome, Firefox, Android native

MINIMUM NETWORK REQUIREMENTS » Performance is specified for a min 2Mbps » Video quality is dependent on connection speed » Max. size of preloaded content is 6MB: » 24s @ 2Mbps » 3s @ 12Mbps » Max. size for progressive content download: » 300MB (lower quality versions served based on speed)

iOS 11.0+ » Safari, Chrome, Firefox Windows - Win 7, 8 and 10 » Recent versions of Chrome, Firefox, Edge macOS - Sierra and newer (10.12) » Recent versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari

PERSONAL DATA The online experience does not require audiences to put in their personal data.

ACCESSIBILITY The model cabinet can be viewed from three sides, so wheelchair users can move around the exhibit. The audio handsets can be fixed at an appropriate height for wheelchair users.

Dimensions The cabinet dimensions are: H100cm x W140cm x D95cm.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS The exhibit comprises: A cabinet » This contains a milled aluminium model of the 9th floor of the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong. The model has embedded LED lights.

When buttons on the front of the cabinet are pressed, the lighting in the model animates in sync with a story played via an audio handset. » The cabinet requires a 240v power supply (less than 13amps) » The back of cabinet is open to allow power to be connected » Power to the cabinet should be turned off when the museum is closed.

A cabinet-mounted audio handset This needs to be connected to the audio equipment inside.

A wall-mounted audio handset This is mounted to the wall and is connected to a media player. This can be mounted behind the wall or within the cabinet.

A wall panel This panel is mounted on the wall. It has text describing the events at the Metropole Hotel and contextual information about the video interview.

Blast Theory will provide a full guide on installation and maintenance.

A Cluster of 17 Cases > Moving Image Media

MOVING IMAGE MEDIA Watch a video of smoke moving through the prototype model: bit.ly/3qJFdCu