Aidez-moi SVP !!!
AIDEZ-MOI SVP !!! is the result of a process of selective archiving of comments posted by users on online health forums. The emergence of microcommunities revolving around specific diseases or specific health issues is a rather interesting contemporary phenomenon. These online forums are populated by self-proclaimed "experts" who actually appear to be gathering their own information from other online sources. For many users, peer support (i.e. the opinion of other users) seems a viable alternative to the various elements of the traditional healthcare system: doctors, nurses, emergency rooms, etc. While some people tend to use the Web in order to complement their research, others apparently swear exclusively by these forums ... even when dealing with emergencies. The research process behind this book required the use of specific keywords in order to isolate posts that were worthy of note in terms of their absurdity, questionable nature and / or desperate qualities. With this corpus, I created a cast of characters, among which three were inspired by Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid. The arrangement of the various quotes selected during the research process works as a narrative that depicts the incessant complains of a forum user who seems to be suffering much more from hypochondria than from any other imaginable disease. Caught in a space where serious information rubs shoulder with paranoid delusions, this user’s cry for help is only one more message in a bottle tossed in a vast ocean already saturated.