burnout

Burnout explores our self-sabotaging obsession with competition, achievement, and the relentless drive for self-improvement. The human condition is wired to focus on progress an essential instinct for survival. Without this innate dissatisfaction, we wouldn't strive for remedies, cures, or efficiencies. But this pursuit comes at a cost. In our quest for a ‘better life’, we often overlook our contentment.

Inspired by Byung-Chul Han’s The Burnout Society, this project focuses on quiet, mundane moments, instances of boredom, where we pause, reset, and embrace banality. These moments are printed onto thermochromic paper, most commonly known to us as fax machine paper. This unique form of print making, where images are burned onto heat-sensitive paper, becomes a metaphor for the emotional and physical imprint of modern life.

Modern principles and a surplus of modern technology, was intended to make our lives easier, smoother, awarding us time. The advent of email, and internet, saw a speeding up of our working lives. We don’t have more time—we’re simply expected to do more. Technology, self-improvement, acheivement has become synonymous with our survival, so we believe.

Byung-Chul Han addresses this issue, quoting Baudrillard “Today, generalized communication and surplus information threaten to overwhelm all human defences” (2010)

But it’s not just our working lives, we chase the dream of wealth to ease our worries, working harder and never playing. Placate ourselves with “If only I was just a little more….” Thinner, wealthier, kinder, healthier, then I would be happier.

This constant pursuit of self-betterment often veers into self-exploitation, eroding mental health. We labour under the illusion that doing more will improve our lives, all while surrounded by an endless feed of reels, ads, and noise insisting we must be better.

REFERENCES

Han, B.-C. .2010. The Burnout Society. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.