'A sustainable activity is one that you believe you can continue indefinitely into the future...or at least for seven generations.'

overview
Over the course of one year, our environment is flooded with more toxic waste than it can handle. seventh generation examines what occurs when the very system that is essential for our own survival is not supported.

As the baby wails and squirms, pollution statistics are processed and used to control the flow and frequency of waste being pumped into her environment. The pollutants include those of a liquid variety (directed through electronic pumps) and also those of a gaseous variety (produced with a fog machine). A user's presence is sensed through the touch pad and influences the sounds and movements of the baby. Fans mounted within the installation drain the 'air pollution' from the environment toward the user - revealing the wasteland and allowing him/her to sooth the infant at the cost of his/her own airspace. As the user leaves the installation, the pollution once again begins to fill the environment - continuing the cycle of accumulation and destruction.
technology
seventh generation uses a condensed scale of time (12 hours = 1 year) in order to visualize the way in which pollution effects (and eventually destroys) our world. By touching the human hand print, the user becomes connected to (and perhaps implicated in) the creation of this toxic waste dump, and although the infant inside may be soothed by the presence of another living creature - the environment around her is too far gone to save. This pollution baby is being treated in a way similar to how, as an industrialized society, we are treating the earth. In turn, the project also comments upon the legacy we are leaving our own children. Eventually, the pollutants being pumped very consciously into this microcosm will begin to physically break down the baby, the electronics keeping the system operational, and the very installation itself.