Error 417 Expectation Failed is an HTTP status code that indicates a specific expectation or requirement set by the client was not met by the server. The error reveals something about the logic of the digital system, making underlying structures visible and offering insights into how these systems function. The foundation's choice of name underlines the willingness to understand error and failure as part of any process. We support projects that pursue open processes and do not seek to produce preconceived results, but rather allow for trial and error.

Failure is measured by the rigid standards of an elitist culture drawing clear lines between winners and losers. ​​​​Supporting failure in the arts, therefore, is not simply acknowledging a personal shortcoming — it is an act of resistance, a rejection of the very parameters that define value and success in narrow, exclusionary terms.

Net-based arts are particularly well-suited to create and reflect imaginaries of the contemporary, make understandable, and also intervene in the complex connections between art, technology, politics and social relations. In doing so, net-based and digital arts practices make a crucial contribution to producing the knowledge and skills necessary for understanding today's world and dealing confidently with its challenges. ​​​​​

Currently, two of our funding programmes are active:

• Error 406 Not Acceptable supports open processes and ideas worth failing. It offers grants through an open call for projects, with each edition highlighting a different urgent topic. Find out more about the programme here.

• Error 415 Unsupported Media Type supports two outstanding curatorial initiatives per year to keep doing what they do best, no strings attached. More info coming soon.

Our activities and grants are aimed at artists, initiatives by exhibition spaces, online platforms, curators and art collectives, as well as developers of software and hardware that explore possibilities of contemporary, networked technologies as art and their significance for societies across the world. We encourage proposals from people who are historically underrepresented in art and technology spaces.

We publish our calls for applications on our website, newsletter and other channels. We do not accept unsolicited applications at the moment.

Error 417 Expectation Failed convinced a number of crypto whales to donate a share of their earnings to us. We redistribute these funds towards art projects. Since these earnings fluctuate a lot, the amount donated at the end of each year determines the foundation's budget for the following year.

By redirecting these turbo-capitalist earnings to support critical artists and initiatives, Error 417 Expectation Failed aims to alleviate some of the market pressures that increasingly shape today’s art funding. We seek to strengthen the networks which counteract and prevent the damages caused by late-stage capitalist technologies within our communities. 

For the foundation, crypto earnings are a means to an end and do not determine the topics we explore nor the artistic formats we support.

Sure!
You can donate directly to our bank account:

Stiftung 417 Expectation Failed
IBAN: CH97 0900 0000 1638 2092 4
BIC: POFICHBEXXX
Bank: PostFinance AG (Mingerstrasse 20, 3030 Bern, Switzerland)

Please contact us if you want to donate crypto or need a donation receipt.