What Is Undetectable?

In collaboration with the Undetectable Flash Collective led by Avram Finkelstein, Visual AIDS coordinated an artist-led mapping exercise and public intervention about the HIV serostatus “undetectable” for the New Museum's IDEAS CITY.

The theme of 2015's IDEAS CITY Festival was The Invisible City. With this in mind, and deploying the logic of the festival environment, Visual AIDS distributed balloons asking participants "What is Undetectable?" to engage the public in dialogue about HIV and serostatus. Additionally, a display of artist-designed lenticular lightboxes and lenticular cards about undetectability informed and educated. Over 300 people joined Visual AIDS in our all-day festival presence at the New Museum's IDEAS CITY and made their perspective on undetectability seen and heard.

Context: Antiretroviral treatments have enabled a reduction of the body’s viral load to levels that elude testing, inaugurating a lesser-known HIV serostatus: “undetectable.” This invisible presence and the waning of HIV/AIDS cultural activism and social engagement within NYC directly relates to the Invisible City theme of the New Museum’s 2015 IDEAS CITY. Last spring, Visual AIDS and the New York Public Library formed a Flash Collective with artist/activist Avram Finkelstein (Gran Fury/Silence=Death Project). The collective created lenticular lightboxes and cards with rhetorical questions about undetectability. Visual AIDS’ IDEAS CITY presence will build upon the visual foundation of the Undetectable Flash Collective to further engage the public in producing a similar visual representation of the complex issues surrounding undetectability.

The below text was conceived of by the Undetectable Flash Collective for the lenticular cards and lightboxes, and gives a crash course into the medical meaning of the word undetectable, and it's social and policy implications:

WE'RE AT A CROSSROADS IN HIV TREATMENT. HIV POSITIVE & HIV NEGATIVE ARE NO LONGER THE ONLY POSSIBILITIES WHEN DISCUSSING SEROSTATUS. THE WORD UNDETECTABLE HAS EMERGED IN THIS CONVERSATION. UNDETECTABLE ORIGINATED AS A MEDICAL TERM FOR AN “ACCEPTABLY” LOW PRESENCE OF HIV IN THE BLOODSTREAM DEPENDENT ON STRICT COMPLIANCE WITH “SUCCESSFUL” ANTIRETROVIRAL TREATMENTS. MAINTAINING UNDETECTABLE VIRAL LEVELS SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCES HIV TRANSMISSION, BUT IT IS NOT A CURE FOR AIDS & DOES NOT REMOVE STIGMA. NOT EVERYONE HAS ACCESS TO INFORMATION OR TREATMENTS, SO THE EMPHASIS ON ACHIEVING UNDETECTABILITY REINFORCES RACIAL & SOCIOECONOMIC DIVIDES. BECAUSE THERE IS MORE MONEY IN LIFELONG TREATMENT, PROFIT-DRIVEN DRUG COMPANIES HAVE NO FINANCIAL INCENTIVE TO FIND A CURE. UNDETECTABILITY SAVES LIVES. BUT WHOSE LIVES? & WHO PROFITS? WHERE’S THE CURE?

Further information on the process behind the Undetectable Flash Collective can be found HERE.

For the New Museum’s 2015 IDEAS CITY, one hundred cultural and community groups transformed the streetscape around the Bowery neighborhood into a temporary city of ideas, redefining public space through participatory programming and unexpected structures for gathering. The theme of 2015's IDEAS CITY Festival was The Invisible City. The major collaborative initiative between hundreds of arts, education, and civic organizations explored questions of transparency and surveillance, citizenship and representation, expression and suppression, and the enduring quest for visibility in the city. The Festival reconfigured the Bowery neighborhood into a multi-platform incubator that asked a collective public to explore issues faced by the city, propose solutions, and seed concrete actions.