Avian Flu Awareness Project

Choose a site:

Advanced Search

AI Knowledge Categories

The CI Partners

A Complete List of the CI Partners

Classifieds

Average Rating: no ratings submitted

email a link

print version

review this page

read reviews

Country

United States

Region

North America

Programme Summary

Launched in 2005, this United-States-based project was designed to educate people about avian influenza through the use of live performance and visual art. The organiser - a single individual - has designed performances/exhibitions involving a faux office set up in an art gallery. He has used primary elements and a series of large blowups of "informative diagram"-style graphics. The purpose of the project was to comment upon what the organiser characterises as "the faux-information that is generated and disseminated in the event of a pandemic or other global event....The Avian Flu Awareness Project addresses the mystery of potential pandemic and our collective experience of waiting and worrying about the uncertainties of the coming days and months."

Communication Strategies

This initiative draws on the use of artwork and live performance to alert people to the risk that avian influenza can pose. An event at The Loft in San Pedro, California (CA) in the United States featured 5 graphic images, with the organiser playing the part of the "less-than-helpful bureaucrat", and a 3-man "Avian Flu Awareness Crew" who wandered the streets outside disseminating promotional posters.

The second implementation of the Avian Flu Awareness Project took place in April of 2006 at Walled City in San Pedro. This version consisted of 3 graphic images. In addition, Awareness Project field staff held a session in an art gallery to answer questions and actively engage citizens in an exercise intended to increase community awareness of the various potentialities of the possible pandemic. Reportedly, the office hours/reception stimulated dialogue about the issue, with visitors expressing different perspectives on the potential crisis.