HappyScan 🧩

This is the post which first led @benitopagotto to reach out via DM. I thought he'd be pissed but he found it funny, he would dish out jokes but could also easily take them. His overly authentic personality, with a spice of French brashness, didn't always translate well on socials but speaking privately you could tell he was a well meaning kind guy. I was one of the bigger critics on RTFKT's direction/approach but he was genuinely appreciative of the ideas/dialogue & and would calmly try to explain why they'd love to do certain things but couldn't given the business environment they were in. I know he was actively pushing for a new home for Clones even after the sunset, he cared more than many in the community believed. RIP Benoit, your vision proved to be ahead of its time but still damn glad to have been on this journey trying to push culture towards a new & unconventional direction. While some will say Clones failed or died out, in my 12 years in this industry there's hardly anything I witnessed that had as much soul in it as the early days where art, pop-culture & tech perfectly converged to birth a level of self expression that for perhaps the first time made the abstract concept of 'digital identity' something tangible, something exciting. That soul will linger on via the art, artifacts & memories... and that no one can take away.