What is Luxury? - Object in Focus: FOMO by Space Caviar

FOMO, Space Caviar, 2014–ongoing, FOMObile (steel, MDF, wheels, printer, computer, LCD monitors), online classified advertisements, custom FOMO software. Adapted for this installation on commission by the V&A. Courtesy of Space Caviar

The FOMObile (Fear Of Missing Out) is a real-time publishing platform commenting on the ever accelerating automation of many professions, including journalism. It tests the conceptual boundaries of publishing technology, questioning what the systemic and aesthetic consequences of a future of an automated everything will be. FOMO software powers the FOMObile, a mobile publishing unit operating autonomously.

Initiated in Spring 2014, FOMO is an on-going investigation using events and exhibitions as a laboratory rather than as settings to present finished work. As such, the FOMO software and physical FOMObile configuration adapt and change for each appearance. Developing a version of an editorial typology for each one, FOMO investigates the near-future of hybrid human & machine publishing.

Since the first edition of publications produced at Salone del Mobile in 2014, FOMO has evolved it’s layout from magazine, to book, to map, and now at the V&A to the artist book. In each iteration, FOMO experiments with the type and amount of data gathered in terms of it’s design and audience.

FOMObile at What is Luxury?

In the context of the exhibition What is Luxury?, FOMO is investigating the notion of hyperpersonalisation and the promise of a technologically-driven 'luxury for all' that drives much of contemporary technology and marketing industries (e.g. Coke cans that carry your name).

During the exhibition, FOMO will generate artist books on demand, on the spot, based on visitors' postcodes. An interface will serve as a red/green light, letting visitors know if FOMO is in operation or ready for use. There will be no waiting list. Only the first received tweet during a green light period will be queried. The books titled 'Some Interiors' will feature interior photos gathered from online classified ads according to the visitors' supplied postcode. While questioning artistic production and authenticity within a museum setting, the artist books provide an intimate interior portrait of homes and neighbourhoods by appropriating photography produced for a context other than being presented on exquisite paper. The photos serve the strict purpose of selling objects and goods effortlessly. Stripped from their use, sorted by location and presented in a booklet suggesting a precise selection, the photos reveal a new voyeuristic meaning of local economy and domestic privacy.

Text by Simone C. Niquille and Joseph Grima