Eight years ago Ali Alvarez of the UK committed a willful act of defiant anticapitalism--she did not scratch a scratch-off lottery card. And she’s been not scratching ever since.
In her own words ...
There's something about the whole lottery thing that doesn't feel right to me - getting your hopes high, dreaming, escaping, and then usually being let down.
This happens to me on a daily basis WITHOUT the lottery's help, muchas gracias. So as an experiment, I started buying scratch cards and not scratching them.
It felt funny.
Then I showed it to a few people. It made them feel funny.
It made me think... "I think I'm onto something here."
I couldn't agree more. Such a simple concept—she doesn’t even do anything—and yet, so subversive.
Ali hopes to amass 8,000 tickets—enough to fill a 12 x12 foot space, floor to ceiling, as an art installation. Folks have been sending her scratch-off lottery cards from all over the world, and wouldn't you know, cheesy lottery design is, for the most part, universal. There are a few standouts, however, that have a bit of regional differentiation …
Check out 'I Love My Life the Way it is'to see where you can send Ali cool lottery cards for her to leave unscratched.
