ERROR 413

The title “ERROR 413” references the code for “a request payload that exceeds the server’s configured limits”, which becomes a metaphor for the way that constant use of technology overwhelms the mind.

In an age where even our downtime is met with the constant stimulation of doom scrolling, notifications and chatting to AI, it becomes nearly impossible to wind down. We are overstimulated, burnt out and endlessly interrupted. With technology progressing so quickly it can be hard to keep up. It feels like we must adopt it or be left behind.

This project critiques technology’s damaging impact on wellbeing, while also acknowledging its necessity in modern life. Even in creating the collection, I am complicit. I complain about the ways technology exhausts me, yet I rely on advanced tools to bring my designs to life. In the process of this collection, I used a Virtual Reality Headset and various CAD Programs to model my designs, a 3D printing pen to make/decorate the garments and ChatGPT to help me problem solve. The very technologies I critique are also the ones that expand my creative capabilities. The silhouettes for this collection highlight the tension between dependance and resistance to technology. The four layered silhouettes symbolise digital and metal overload. Accordion pockets are used to represent pop up windows and content streams. The 3D printed bodices and skirt have extruded strands which resemble frayed wires. The use of mesh for the catsuit exposes a body to represent feeling vulnerable due to overstimulation. Silhouettes 3 and 4 explore concerning future projections, through textures and 3D elements symbolic of dysfunction and dissociation. I expand upon this concept in the garment descriptions.
The collection becomes both a complaint and confession, critiquing technology while acknowledging that it is already fused with our processes of creating and living.

ERROR 413 is a collection that forces us to reflect on our current condition. We are overwhelmed and mentally drained by technology, yet we are unwilling and unable to disconnect from it.



Photography and Modelling: Bree McGirl and Jade Moreno

Silhouettes 1 & 2 represent the constant disruptions that we face from technology.

Multiple accordion pockets with “ERROR” and “413” hand-3D printed text details, represent pop up windows and error messages. They express our inability to disconnect from technology due to all of the notifications and doom scrolling which disrupts our life. We are aware that these things are impacting us negatively, but we cannot rid ourselves of them without making a lot of changes; just like an error message on an old computer.

The hand-3D-printed garments with extruded strands symbolise frayed and melted wires; a metaphor for a frazzled and burnt out mental state.