THE SCRIPTORIUM AS A CONCEPT
In the medieval world, a scriptorium was a room dedicated to the writing, copying, and illuminating of manuscripts. It was a space of slow, deliberate labor where knowledge was transcribed and preserved for the future. The Transaction Art Universe adopts and subverts this concept. This digital Graphic Scriptorium is not a place of transcription, but of primary inscription. Here, the drawings are not copies; they are the original manuscripts themselves. Each mark is an indelible entry into a permanent ledger, a direct recording of a contractual moment between the artist and her subjects: the body, memory, history, and power. This archive functions as both a library and a forensic evidence room. The works housed here are the foundational documents—the signed contracts — that form the evidentiary basis of the entire Transaction Art Universe.
THE ARCHIVIST
Leni Smoragdova {$M} is a visual artist and the architect of the Transaction Art Universe. Working under the designation {$M}, she operates as a classifier and archivist of human conditions. Her practice is a continuous process of auditing the intangible contracts that govern identity, intimacy, and societal structures.
Through drawing, collage, and conceptual action, she examines the self as a negotiated entity and history as a series of enforceable agreements. The TAU Graphic Scriptorium is the central repository for this ongoing investigation.
THE MAIN UNIVERSE HUB
The Graphic Scriptorium is one node within a larger constellation of projects. For the theoretical framework, conceptual projects, and essays that complete the Transaction Art Universe, proceed to the central hub: [smoragdova.com]