Coral Cross is here to help
How would you survive a global influenza pandemic?
The Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies (HRCFS) is proud to announce an opportunity for members of the public across the island of Oahu, and around the world, to answer that question for themselves, through an immersive "playable scenario" set in the near future.
Our latest project, Coral Cross, is being produced for the state Department of Health (DOH) and funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) based in Atlanta.
Coral Cross builds on several years of pioneering work by HRCFS researchers and our collaborators, in designing and staging "experiential futures", including a quartet of immersive scenarios for Hawaii 2050, and the FoundFutures initiative of Stuart Candy and Jake Dunagan, bringing alternative futures into everyday life. It's also inspired by an emerging genre of serious "alternate reality games" (ARGs), examples of which include World Without Oil (dealing with the onset of an energy crisis), After Shock (earthquake), Traces of Hope (civil war), and Superstruct (a deadly synergy of existential threats). These have successfully sought both to entertain and to educate people about topics of public concern, supporting a deeper degree of engagement than many traditional public-sector outreach efforts.
A network of volunteers established Coral Cross of Oahu in 02011, according to the hypothetical scenario created by HRCFS. This grass-roots organisation steps forward to aid the island community as it braces for a pandemic crisis.
The project will use a variety of online and offline media to simulate the onset of a flu pandemic, as seen from Oahu, on a timescale where one day in real life equals one month inside the scenario. It breaks new ground as the first project of its kind to revolve around a pandemic.
By bringing an abstract possible future into concrete experience, Coral Cross will enable people not only to think through, but also to feel through, this type of disruptive scenario before it happens, contributing to a more informed and better prepared public. It will tell a compelling story as well as exploring important issues which have scientists and public health experts increasingly worried. There were three influenza pandemics during the last hundred years, the worst of which began in 01918, just as the First World War was ending. The "Spanish flu" claimed many millions more lives than the war.†
The project is one piece of a multi-part public engagement effort run by DOH, under the banner "Vaccine: Surviving Hawaii's Next Pandemic". One important aim is to generate discussion about which groups should be prioritised for receiving vaccine against the pandemic flu strain, once such a vaccine becomes available.
Coral Cross is free and will run in the second half of May. Anyone interested can now visit coralcross.org to sign up.
For further information, please contact HRCFS researcher and project director Stuart Candy on +1-808-956-2888 or scandy at hawaii dot edu.
† World War I claimed an estimated 10 million lives [Britannica Concise Encyclopedia], while the so-called Spanish flu caused 40-50 million deaths worldwide [World Health Organization].
