FILE NOT FOUND 404 was conceived in the heady, pioneering days of the World Wide Web in 1996. The idea was to give form, content and meaning to what was essentially a nonentity, the default grey deadend page, the empty placeholder for missing or erroneously entered urls. Everyone on the Web had encountered it (and everyone still does), yet very few individuals at the time had clued into its possibilities (my research not conclusive, but 404 histories abound elsewhere).

My 404 (aka deconstructed 404) was a hypertext commentary on electronic text and the web as medium and art (self-reflexive). It comprised a mixture of personal anecdotes, observations, poetry and sparse imagery presented in a deliberate sequential manner (linear narrative) as counterpoint to the then prevailing wisdom and enthusiasm for random access/nonlinear texts.

File Not Found 404 was posted anonymously. Part of the fun was seeing countless determined souls persevere to the long revelationary end where a final email click promised to solve the mystery. I met a few fascinating individuals, both online and IRL (in real life).

To the best of my knowledge the original text is no longer online. I've continued with the project under various guises, disguises, configurations and, fittingly I suppose, it always seems on the verge of extinction. In the aftermath of 9/11 Victoria Sinclair on the Naked News (gutsy Canadian enterprise) was a catalyst in a text-heavy File Not Found 404 facsimile of the original site -- tweaked now, with Javascript and other goodies such as Flash. It's no longer online :-)

In the works is a poem Flash piece which may augment this page some day.

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