Mapping biosecurity in an animal research facility: ink and household bleach

This image is based on the floor plan of an animal research facility as suggested by the American National Institute of Health. The floor plan shows the separation of the ‘clean’ from the ‘dirty’ areas and a flow of movement intended to separate these. Hydrogen peroxide is used in such facilities to maintain cleanliness.

The drawing was first executed by flooding a piece of paper with sepia ink and then attempting with inevitable lack of success to wash out the designated ‘clean’ areas of the floor plan with bleach. Sepia ink was used as it separates easily into its constituent pigments and reacts strongly with bleach in unforeseeable ways.

Grid and Graphite

These models suggest that the apparently clean and controlling cages housing animals in a lab may not always be able to ‘contain’ or ‘hold’ everything about their inhabitants.

 

Thinking About Biosecurity in an Animal Research Facility

A combination of incommensurable graphic devices and visual metaphors, a lab constructed from barcharts suggesting a quantification of the ‘clean’ and the ‘dirty’ where ‘cleanliness’ and ‘dirt’ are of various kinds. The drawing attempts to evoke a set of situations in simultaneous terms of measurement and place, quantities and qualities. Colour plays a part.