Fountain of Youth

Fountain of Youth is structured as a large, framed, two way mirror with a monitor encased vertically behind it so that the animation occurring on the screen can be seen through ones own reflection. It hangs on the wall close to the ground. As spectators walk up to it they are able to view themselves but they also trigger and even interact with the animation through a kinnect hidden in the structure and aimed at them. Animation: A crowd of people progressively age as they peer out at the viewer. They are invisible until generated by live data representing population growth in the world. As the data calculates a person being born into the world so a particle of light is formed on a member of the crowd helping to define their form. It grows brighter until it is extinguished by the data calculating a death. The world population growth exceeds the number of deaths, so the image generated becomes encumbered with too much information, ultimately making it as meaningless as an empty image. The screen pixels, which were originally, uniformly black have now become uniformly golden where the figures are positioned. The animated image, now a silhouette, gradually fades so that the spectator perceives their own reflection before the process re-starts. Close to the mirror is a small screen with a counter displaying the live data of births and deaths in the world.