R VanO – Project Statement

“Read Receipts” is an exploration of two types of toxicity: communication habits through the medium of texting and the hidden poisons in everyday objects. The primary focus and the inspiration of the project roots in the two types of “read receipts.” The physical receipts received after a purchase which contains Bisphenol A (BPA) a chemical easily absorbed through the skin. The other type of receipt is the digital receipt that indicates the read time for a sent text message, which is a key indicator of if an individual is ghosting or not.

The visual component of the project involves an artist book in the form of a receipt gushing from the inside of a book. The words: “TAKE RECEIPT HERE” points to the mouth of the dispenser. The blog post for this project is a one-sided text conversation between the narrator and the reader, where the narrator talks about the toxicity of read receipts and receipts you read. What we view as mundane exchanges have hidden impacts out of the field of our consideration. And, if you’re wondering what impacts you have on people, check your read receipts.

The links for the four sources present in the text conversation are as follows:

Link 1: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.5406/amerjpsyc.129.2.0161.pdf?ab_segments=0%252Fbasic_SYC-4222%252Ftest&refreqid=excelsior%3Af226e80474d5ea47076025c7ccb55546

Link 2: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/smarter-living/why-people-ghost-and-how-to-get-over-it.html

Link 3: https://proxy.geneseo.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/919707916?accountid=11072

Link 4: https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2016/12/23/is-bpa-on-thermal-paper-a-health-hazard