NHS@70 Interactive Marble Run

The Long Run data materialisation was commissioned by the British Medical Journal to celebrate 70 years of the NHS.

The seven interactive marble runs were built exclusively out of hospital medical equipment and each run reflects a different decade in an NHS user’s life from age 1 to age 100.

The time a marble takes to fall to the end of each run reflects the amount of money the NHS spends on a person in that decade of their life.

For example, a 90-year-old costs £10,000 a year to treat which is 50 seconds in the language of the marble run. Meanwhile, a twenty-year-old’s marble only took 10 seconds to go travel to the end because they are fitter and healthier and cost the NHS less money.

The marble runs through hospital equipment such as specula, latex gloves, syringes, bandages, bedpans, surgical scissors which are all controlled with electronic components such as light sensors and motors.

Technology: Raspberry Pi // sensors // LEDs // 3D printed models // motors // arduino // C++

Client: British Medical Journal

Awards:  Bronze award in Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards 2019 (category: unusual).

Location: London, UK