FW 22 COLLECTION
Erreur 404
BY VALENTIN PORCHER, CO-founder
Feeling the bristles of my brush glide across my computer’s 28-inch screen gives me brand new sensations. Who knows how this new piece will turn out, but I think that once it’s framed and hung next to my remote control sculpture, it will embellish my living room even more.
It will pair beautifully with my little coffee table, on which I have placed my plant “Zucky” that feels right at home there. The heat emanating from the cathode-ray tubes of this television set helps its leaves grow at breakneck speed.
I didn’t think it would ever happen, but here it is, the big “digital-electro-IT” bug has crashed down onto us. No great, thunderous surges to the height of the global technological jumble, no.
Just a stupid, little sound on our machines, beep beep beep.
Crackling, squeaking, lights changing from blue to orange, some snow, and finally, a flashing window:
WORLDWIDE 404 ERROR.
And then everything froze. No key reacted to the tapping of our desperate fingers. So we had to figure out what to do with all this now obsolete equipment. That first night, I was very anxious at the thought of not being able to scroll through my social media feeds before going to bed. And then I realised that boredom set in a lot faster without scrolling endlessly, and I fell asleep faster than I ever have.
In the early hours of the morning, in top form, I started doing weird stuff, like taping my modem (the ugly one with all the antennas) onto my head and chasing the cows in front of my house. As time went by, I found myself outside a lot more, tending to my vegetables, creating giant totems with all the stuff I came across here and there. Some evenings, I even organised joyous hangouts in the garden, lit by a garland of cell phones that I’d left on and ingeniously hung from the tree.
But of course, it was not all easy, far from it. But little by little, everyone found their place, and started afresh. Keyboard tapping junkies no longer use shortcuts, preferring to raid music stores in search of pianos and synthesisers. Followers of mindless discussions on the web have returned to the local bistro, video game addicts have discovered the pinball machine and the joys of tilting.
If one day, you never know, one of your inquisitive children or grandchildren asks you what all this unknown tech equipment that now populates museums was once used for, just tell them that you don’t have the answer, but that one thing is certain:
it all led to a dead end, like a good old 404 Error.
By Valentin Porcher
