H19N12 is my final project for ArtEZ University of the Arts, with which I graduated. Growing up, I lived in a small village in the bible belt named Barneveld. It is nationally known as ‘Kippendorp’ translated to ‘Chicken Village’. This name is because Barneveld houses the biggest amount of chickens in The Netherlands, around 3.4 million of them. This isn’t without its trouble’s though, in 2003, 30 million poultry animals were culled due to the infamous bird flu. Later in 2012, there were 31 outbreaks of the same flu, which was prevalent in Barneveld because of its high quantity in chickens. The bird flu ended op getting a new name; The avian flu, which in some mutations ended up being dangerous to humans as well.
“With my project, I wanted to make people aware of the dangers of the poultry industry, and the exploitation of the animals involved.”
I achieved this by sketching a future scenario where I design a new variant of the avian flu which will spread in the community of Barneveld. This new bird flu has mutated further from the existing forms and will thereby get a new flu number, which is H19N12.
Symptoms of this bird flu consist of swollen throats and paws, the bird’s comb also discolors to blue. This new Avian flu will also spread through the air and any means of transport, just like every avian flu. A new symptom is that this H19N12 is resistant to antibiotics and will take bits of DNA from one flu-carrier to the next. With 3D programs like Blender, I was able to design and speculate on new mutation forms in birds by combining bird flu symptoms and different species of birds together. I focused on combining commonly used chicken breeds in the poultry industry with common bird species in the community of Barneveld. With this, I created a fictional world in which I wanted to take people along in the future of Barneveld by means of storytelling and speculative design.
The visuals of these birds were very essential to carry my fictional world. I chose to make educational wall plates as a medium to inform and warn people about the threats of the current poultry industry. The decision to use these wall plates is because of their old school and nostalgic appearance (to Dutch people). Almost every Dutch person will be able to remember these plates from their youth, which makes the message hit closer to home.
