Shay Salehi

Empty Transaction

This interactive installation removes everything from the consumer equation except the physical proof of the exchange. The screen prompts the viewer to enter their name. After pressing enter a receipt is printed providing the viewers with their own copy of a receipt that verifies that the provided name has interacted with the work. The receipt provides the time, date and location of the transaction. On the receipt is a special QR code that viewers can scan on their phones. The QR code links to a private page on the artists website that is inaccessible without this QR code. The link leads to a very short video clip, where it confronts the viewer with a juxtaposition between technology and nature. The video allows for a space of emptiness and solitude that reflects back on the transaction itself. I have hope that this can allow viewers to consider the true value of their own engagement with capitalism.Whether the viewer decides to keep the receipt or dispose of it is completely up to the viewer. The physical act of giving back to the viewer and the unnecessary importance of the object are vital to the conceptual value of this work.