We are excited to announce that our new work A Cluster of 17 Cases will open on Friday 14th September 2018 at the Museum of the City of New York as part of the exhibition Germ City

The interactive installation is inspired by the stories of the 17 unsuspecting people who stayed on the 9th floor of the Metropole Hotel on the night of the 21st February 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 is the result of Blast Theory being the first ever artists-in-residence at the World Health Organization in Geneva. Over three trips in early 2018, artists Matt, Ju and Nick interviewed key staff at the Strategic Health Operations Centre (“SHOC”), which monitors epidemics and pandemics across the world and coordinates international collaboration in response, to explore how epidemiologists studied the movements of each of the guests in the Metropole Hotel that night; even conducting tests to trace airflow between rooms.

A Cluster of 17 Cases will be displayed in the Museum of the City of New York from 14th September 2018 as part of Germ City. It will be simultaneously exhibited in Hong Kong from January 2019.

A Cluster of 17 Cases is supported by Wellcome as part of Contagious Cities