Cape Town Station will tomorrow [Tuesday] become the scene of a crime. The DNA Project, with FoxP2, will draw attention to the vital importance of preserving crime scenes and DNA evidence. They have conceptualised an activation to represent the loss and damage that first-on-crime-scene responders, as well as the general public, can affect evidence left at a crime scene.
The activation will consist of a large (8m x 6m) sand box filled with tiny stones of various colours depicting a mug shot of a convict holding up an ID board. This box will be placed in the busy open hall area of the Cape Town Metrorail station. Commuters will be encouraged to walk over the box, thus blurring the mug shot and making it increasingly difficult to see the convicts’ face. The idea gets the public involved in demonstrating how disturbing a crime scene can prevent criminals from being identified.
Commuters walking over the box and disturbing the image will be captured using time-lapse video, and edited into a video clip, which will be played at high speed in under one minute and used in a viral campaign over the social media network to spread awareness
The activation comes in support of a powerful television commercial, called The Cigarette that saved lives, that raises awareness on the preservation of crime scenes in a joint effort by FoxP2 and The DNA Project.
After her father was brutally murdered in his Johannesburg home in 2004 and all traces of DNA and other forensic evidence were lost, destroyed and neglected due to the inexperience and lack of crime scene preservation awareness of the first on crime scene responders, Vanessa Lynch realised that something needed to be done to address this issue in SA and founded The DNA Project.
