The Everyday Objects Gallery — fictional demonstration venue · Stop 04 · English (UK)
A Ticket, Punched Twice
Room 2 · Repair
Stop four. A Ticket, Punched Twice.
A rectangle of card, roughly the size of two postage stamps, softened at the corners from a pocket.
There are two punch holes in it. A ticket of this kind is punched once, on boarding. Two holes means one of three things: a second journey on a ticket that did not allow one, an inspector who did not trust the first hole, or a conductor who simply was not paying attention.
We keep it because of what it is not. It is not rare. It was printed in the tens of thousands and almost all of them were dropped, swept up and burned on the day they were used.
This one was put in a pocket, and then somewhere flat, and then somewhere safe, by somebody who never explained why. That decision — the decision to keep a worthless thing — is the reason this gallery has anything in it at all.
Take the stairs, or the lift to your right, for the last stop.
Produced by EchoTrail Studio. The Everyday Objects Gallery is fictional; no object or detail above is a historical claim.