Joe
Pettet
Smith

The German word schádenfreude talks of a feeling of pleasure derived from witnessing the failure or misfortune of another. Nowhere is this feeling more evident than in internet Fail compilations. These videos are clip after clip of slapstick mishaps mashed together for our enjoyment, racking up millions of views in the process. In internet culture, these are Epic Fails. 

From 2016-2021, Joe Pettet-Smith collected every sheet of 5x4 photographic film that failed in the making of new work. These Attempts are usually down to user error; a distraction in the field, rushing to make a picture before the moment passes or chatting to a bystander. Self-help gurus talk about celebrating failures. It is an integral part of the creative process but is rarely celebrated. Instead it is hidden away. This work combines each of these failed sheets of film with the reaction of a viewer in the comment section of a Fail video uploaded to Youtube near to the same date as the error was made. The results are absurdist combinations between the analog and the digital; attempts during the creative process paired with slapstick calamities of strangers on the internet.