MBCV Interactive statues

Make Blood Cancer Visible (MBCV) was a nation-wide campaign which aimed to inform, educate and increase awareness of blood cancer. The MBCV campaign ran throughout September 2018, with installations in the centre of London, Cardiff, Manchester and Edinburgh covering 601 miles, and received support from double Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes as the official ambassador, whose own mother died of myeloma.

Based on the premise of attract, interact and act, the main feature consisted of 10 life-sized transparent, motion-activated human figures which represented the ‘unseen’ or invisible nature of blood cancer.

Designed to attract people to the area, the statues had proximity sensors which pick up a person’s movement and react to their presence with audio feedback from one of 10 speakers telling the real stories of sufferers of blood cancer. Each statue contained 60 LEDs which were programmed to react to the movement of the person standing in front of it.

This encouraged further interaction as the user learned that their actions were triggering responses from the statues and therefore attracted more onlookers in the busy town centres. The figures told real-life stories from people who had been diagnosed with blood cancer, in their own voices, encouraging passers-by listen to their experiences and to show their support for the campaign, by pressing a big red button.