Blast Theory: artists-in-residence at World Health Organization | Contagious Cities

Wellcome Trust

As part of Contagious Cities, Blast Theory – who explore social and political questions through interactive art – became the first artists-in-residence at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva.

Artists Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr and Nick Tandavanitj spent time at the WHO’s Strategic Health Operations Centre, which monitors epidemics and pandemics across the world and coordinates international collaborative responses.

The work, prompted by their residency, reflects on contagion and cities, and focuses on moments of uncertainty in public health decision making and the 2003 SARS epidemic.

It featured in the Germ City exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York. A different version was displayed at the Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts in Hong Kong.

Building on their Contagious Cities work, Blast Theory have developed a new interactive version of the residency artwork: A Cluster of 17 Cases. It tells the story of a night at the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong, which became the epicentre of the spread of SARS in 2003.

Find out more about the project: https://wellcome.ac.uk/contagiouscities

Related Links:
• Blast Theory – https://www.blasttheory.co.uk/
• A Cluster of 17 Cases – https://www.17cases.com/
• World Health Organization – http://www.who.int/
• Germ City: Museum of the City of New York – https://www.mcny.org/exhibition/germ-city
• Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts – https://www.taikwun.hk/en/

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