With the pervasiveness of social media we seem to be the key stars in a documented life project. Nothing is forgotten, everything is stored in the collective digital brain so it can be retrieved at a later date. However, one reason some of us might find services such as Snapchat so alluring is that they keep reminding us of the ephemerality of our lived experiences.

London-based artist Shawn Soh, in collaboration with Persa Hajiyanni and Ryan Smaglik, designed an installation that serves as the analog version of Snapchat. The Eraser consists of a machine that snaps and prints your picture on receipt paper, only for it to be immediately destroyed by a hairstraightener. As Soh beautifully argues on his website, they ”wanted to make something that made a comment on society today. We used the metaphor of "Snapchat" as it showcases moments with an expiry date. We felt expiration dates are important because it asks humans to reflect on the value of information by showing the movement of time: our present never staying still; it vanishes in a constant instance, and is erased to become a permanent past.”

Allowing visitors to get a few seconds glipse of a moment in their life, The Eraser invites them to contemplate the transience of memory and the passage of time. The installation was exhibited in June at The DELETE Show in London.