Neuro Memento Mori: projected meditations on death
Neuro Memento Mori: projected meditations on death comprises video projection mapped onto a life-sized 3D printed self-portrait sculpture. Memento mori and vanitas artworks, popular in the seventeenth century, supposedly reminded viewers of their mortality. This prompted me to question whether, as we look at memento mori artworks, we do ‘remember, we must die’. The brain data was gathered during novel fMRI experiments, designed in collaboration with neuroscientists, Zoran Josipovic (NYU) and Andreas Roepstorrf (Aarhus University), during which the artist viewed representations of memento mori and meditated on death in the scanner. I compared brain activity when we look at these artworks, with activity when we contemplate death through meditation. The 3D printed sculpture was made from facial scans and neuroimages. Video and computer animations are then projection-mapped onto the sculpture to create a contemporary memento mori that addresses the porous boundaries between life and death, growth and decay.