Gen Alpha and Future

True sustainable development can only be achieved with the support of the youngest generation of humanity…

When UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed raised the idea of the power held by “the youngest humans,” I began researching Generation Alpha.

That gave me a strong motivation to push Seed Design to put forward a proposal.
So in 2023, the third year since I began exploring the ocean
I formally presented our thesis on the ocean for the first time, curating “Gen Alpha and Future.” Much like the timeline of learning itself, we moved from being dazzled by the ocean’s beauty to being moved and awed by its abundance, until we became aware of the problems the ocean now faces.

I wondered how to weave the ocean and Gen Alpha into a single narrative.
Perhaps we shouldn’t offer a standard answer
What if instead we invited Gen Alpha to take part in a piece of design meant to spark motivation?

In this digitalized, socially-networked, globalized, mobile, and visual world, these very indicators define Gen Alpha’s worldview.
So I designed personas for ten ages within the Alpha generation, each linked to a flagship species, and invited these eleven personas to act as instigators
A way to communicate with the Alpha generation:

1. I’m a sea sheep (Costasiella kuroshimae), age 3, born 2020

When I grow up, I want to be a Green Energy Ambassador!

People say I’m the first animal discovered to photosynthesize — from a young age, I’ve been skilled at coordinating and integrating the light around me with the algae inside my body.

I want the whole world to know just how delicious sunlight tastes!

1. I’m a Bargibant’s pygmy seahorse, age 4, born 2019

When I grow up, I want to be a camouflage-pattern designer!

Ever since I moved into my home on the sea fan

I’ve watched countless divers peer through the water and their masks with baffled, hazy eyes

That’s when I understood — the battle armor my mother gave me runs so much deeper than I thought!

1. I’m a flying fish, age 5, born 2018

When I grow up, I want to be a pilot!

My gift is freedom!

None of my friends can taste what it’s like to break the surface the way I can

I’ll find a way to see a bigger, farther world

1. I’m a mahi-mahi (dolphinfish), age 6, born 2017

When I grow up, I want to be an ocean warrior!

Heh heh heh — little brother flying fish, is that really what you think?

Take a look at me and my childhood friend here — now THIS is proper gear for making your way in the world

1. I’m a green sea turtle, age 7, born 2016

When I grow up, I want to be a supermodel!

Fame has to start early — the moment I hatched out of my shell

I was already the center of the spotlight

A child star from the start, I’ve been making my own way across the ocean solo since I was little

Just look — my silhouette has already become synonymous with the sea itself!

1. I’m a great white shark, age 8, born 2015

When I grow up, I want to be an ocean guardian!

You know what? My least favorite movie is the one named after me

It made my family out to be way too vicious

and now I don’t have any friends…

I’m sharpening my great steel teeth — I am the lone shark’s guardian

1. I’m a manta ray, age 9, born 2014

When I grow up, I want to be a fluid dynamicist!

Still water, moving water — the sea works in my favor either way

I landed a role in Finding Nemo at a young age

and with everything I’ve got, I roam the ocean on a grand voyage

1. I’m a Taiwanese white dolphin (Chinese white dolphin), age 10, born 2013

When I grow up, I want to be an endurance athlete!

I’m like a piece of seawater shaped like a dolphin

Distance, to me, is only ever a matter of mood

Lewis Pugh is my human teammate

1. I’m a whale shark, age 11, born 2012

When I grow up, I want to be a shark goodwill ambassador!

As a whale, I hope you humans call me that because I’m as gentle as tofu…

For the sake of my mission, I open my great mouth wide

so you’ll know just how lovable sharks can be

1. I’m a sperm whale, age 12, born 2011

When I grow up, I want to be the lead singer of a heavy metal band!

A sensation before I even perform — my specialty is guttural vocals

No amplifier needed — I casually hit 200 decibels

But don’t think I’m all voice and nothing else

Every one of us whales is a social giant — for us, conversation has to be efficient and full of substance

1. I’m coral reef, age 13, born 2010

I’m not a child anymore — when we grow up, we want to be sages!

You only see one of me, but there are countless more of me out there

I’m grown up now — I build my own house myself

I am for the coral, and the coral is for me

Together we are the perpetual champions of life on this planet

We need the emergence of opinion leaders on climate, the environment, and the ocean.

“Gen Alpha and Future” is my preliminary argument on this planetary-scale question,
built around five traits of SDG leadership: Ambition, Collaboration, Accountability, Consistency, and Intentionality.

As “the youngest humans” have passed from generation to generation
Baby Boomers, X, Y, Z
we’ve now arrived at Generation Alpha. Little Alphas receive more love and attention from parents and elders than any generation before them, and so the future of sustainable development rests, ultimately, in their hands.

On this issue, this is not an exhibition of answers
It’s more like a playground, inviting Little Alphas whose sense of sustainability is just beginning to sprout, together with parents of different generations, to explore across generations and find their own path toward sustainable development.

Sustainability is a direction, but one with many diverse and divergent facets
It can’t be reduced to any single thing. This exhibition chooses the ocean environment as its central axis precisely because Taiwan is surrounded by sea on all sides, and the issue admits no delay.

Through different marine creatures role-playing each age of Little Alpha, and their passionate imagination for the future, we walk into the ocean’s present, its bottlenecks, and its imagined future.

How do we write down the sustainable journey of the ocean that surrounds us? As if it’s hugging us.

One age × one symbolic species × one role-play × one passionate vision of the future

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