The Baby Head Project

A speculative artwork about population control, privilege, and parenthood.

Speculation

With population control in mind, we speculated on a future where no more children can be born. What if there was a way for humans to continue having children without having real children? Inspired by devices today, such as the labor pain simulator that can simulate the pain of giving birth, we wondered…

“What if there was a process or series of devices that could provide the experience of parenthood?”

A New Baby…Device

Here, we introduce The Baby Head Project. Hopeful parents participating in the project would receive a baby-head-shaped device after “giving birth.”

This device serves as a storage mechanism for memories and the parents’ DNA. Parents would teach this baby head everything that they would have taught or passed down to their child. This may include sharing stories about the parents themselves, family traditions, educating the child about their culture, their dreams, and what they would have wanted to do together with the child. The collected information then becomes the blueprint of how their child would come to be in a distant future.

After a period of time, these baby heads would be collected from all participating families and stored in warehouses monitored by computers. In a distant future, when all humans will have died off and the computers believe the Earth is well enough to be populated by humans once more, the DNA stored in the baby heads would be utilized to repopulate the Earth and continue these family lines. The children would be gifted the baby head that contains their family’s memories, allowing them to learn their history and who they would (or were desired to) become.

Parenting and Choice

We speculate that this device would be purchased, because only the most privileged families would have the necessary resources to continue their family line in the distant future.

In this speculative artwork, we open a discussion on parenting and choice. Parents have the power to choose certain memories and lessons they want to teach their child. They have the power to shape their child by telling them what the child should desire, who the child should be, what they dislike. They have the power to lie about memories and history.

We ask: Does the child have a choice in the matter? Do they have the choice to create their own identity, or must they conform to the idea of the person their parents wanted them to be? Can they break free from the desires of the parents, or is their identity hardwired once the recordings have taken place?

Artifact Interaction

When parents receive their new baby, they are prompted to provide a sample of their DNA. This is achieved by holding the ‘DNA receiver’ (pressure sensor) until the pulsing yellow light turns green. After the baby has processed the DNA, the light will turn blue which indicates to the parent that the baby is ready to receive memories. To record memories, the parent will hold down on the button, speak into the microphone (sound sensor), and let go of the button when they finish sharing the memory. When recording, the light flickers. The baby will have successfully recorded the memory when the light turns turquoise. Shortly after, the light will turn blue, indicating that the baby is ready to receive memories once again. This interactive experience is accompanied by a soundtrack.

SPECIFICATIONS

THE BABY HEAD PROJECT. FEBRUARY 2020. INTERACTIVE SPECULATIVE ARTWORK.

CREATED WITH: 3D PRINTED BABY HEAD PLANTER (MODEL BY CARLA BONILLA), LEDS, ARDUINO, SOUND SENSOR, PRESSURE SENSOR, BUTTON, PLEXIGLASS, SOUND

CREATED BY ANNIE LIU AND THERESA AMBAT

SPECULATIVE STORY DEVELOPMENT + ARTIFACT CRAFTING ANNIE LIU

CODE + SOUND DESIGN THERESA AMBAT