Firestation Print Studio Access Prize.
AUTOCRYOSTHESIA
From the Greek: auto (referring to the self), kryos (frost, cold, ice), esthesia (sensation, the capacity for feeling).
My project, Autocryosthesia, began as an exploration of FOMO (the fear of missing out, as exacerbated by contemporary internet culture) which would be communicated through the aesthetic of cryogenics. Beyond Science Fiction, there are companies in the real world that cryogenically freeze human remains in the hopes that future technologies may resurrect them. Unfortunately, many of the bodies need to be disposed of due to the freezing procedure being unsuccessful or the company simply going out of business. For many reasons such as these, cryogenics is widely considered to be naïve ‘quackery’ by the scientific community. My intent with this project is to conflate the follies of cryogenics with the unrealistic expectations that FOMO spawns within us all. I satirically suggest that those with FOMO should have themselves frozen for when they feel their idealised fantasy lives can ‘truly begin’.
Through art making and reflection, I came to see the project as an introspective effort that delved more into my own feelings of FOMO than as any broader societal commentary. This realisation comes as I experience the convergence of numerous anniversaries within my personal life. At the time of writing this it has been five years since the untimely passing of my father, I recently parted ways with partner of five years, and it has been five years since I began my time in art school. As one might imagine, my feelings of FOMO are at an all-time high, although these feelings have always been there, at varying degrees. These feelings feed into this project as I shift to implement more autobiographical factors into the work.
instagram: @lucasjenningsart