PURE PROFIT
arebyte Digital Art Centre, London | 20 June – 04 September 2026
arebyte’s artistic residency programme presents PURE PROFIT, a multi-site installation which unfolded across 11 ATMs throughout London from June to September 2026. This work was developed from January to July by artist Raza Tariq as part of his residency at arebyte Digital Art Centre and responding to arebyte’s 2023-2026 curatorial theme, The Body, The Mind, The Soul.
In PURE PROFIT, Raza explores ATMs as technological ruins while reimagining them as civic altars. In doing so, the ATMs become sites of inquiry into the commodification of religious life and the emergence of a techno spiritual order. Framing old world technologies as a proto-portal, intro other worlds, the installation imagines shrines, offerings, invocations and charms across various sculpture, performance and interactive ‘stations’.
ATMs are rapidly becoming obsolete, increasingly occupying urban landscapes as abandoned pieces of infrastructure. Since their introduction in Japan in the 1960s, our relationship with cash has undergone a profound transformation. As financial services have migrated to digital platforms, the vast majority of everyday transactions and asset management now take place online, leaving the once ubiquitous cash machine as a relic of a previous era. By repurposing these urban relics into micro spiritual sites, Raza draws a parallel with the growing monetisation of spirituality and the forms of religious devotion emerging around technological innovation.
The journey begins at arebyte’s main entrance on Camden Road, where participants will find the first ATM, marked as out of order. To its left, a visitor guide containing instructions is attached to the glass. By scanning the QR code on the guide with their phone, participants can access a digital map revealing the pilgrimage route, which connects 11 ATMs across London, each selected by the artist for its symbolic location.
At each site, participants are invited to perform a ritual in exchange for a fragment of narrative and directions to the next location in the trail. Upon completing the journey and returning to arebyte, visitors receive wisdom from a living Sufi Sayyida.
PURE PROFIT launched on Saturday, 20 June 2026 at 2:30pm with a brief introduction by Raza Tariq and Pita Arreola, Head of Programmes at arebyte. The conversation began at arebyte Digital Art Centre, followed by a short guided tour to the first two ATMs in the trail, both located within walking distance of the venue.
1. “IMAGINARY ATM” (OSB, INKJET ON PAPER, HAZARD TAPE, STICKERS, TTS VOICEMAIL) — 2026
More about the work pictured above: THE IMAGINARY ATM is the first Station on the journey of interactive installation PURE PROFIT, acting as a point of initiation for participants. A navigable digital map interface guides users to the sculpture work outside the entrance to arebyte Digital Art Centre, which features a dialable phone number (subject to initiation), featuring an original audio composition which acts as a gateway to the unseen.
2. “INVISIBLE ATM” (INVISIBLE INK, LOCKBOX, UV LIGHT) — 2026
More about the work pictured above: THE INVISIBLE ATM is the second station of unveiling on the journey of interactive installation PURE PROFIT, the work is a form of contemporary wall art, legible only with the support of UV light. Across the host ATM the following Quranic verse is written 6:59:
۞ وَعِندَهُۥ مَفَاتِحُ ٱلْغَيْبِ لَا يَعْلَمُهَآ إِلَّا هُوَ ۚ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِى ٱلْبَرِّ وَٱلْبَحْرِ ۚ وَمَا تَسْقُطُ مِن وَرَقَةٍ إِلَّا يَعْلَمُهَا وَلَا حَبَّةٍۢ فِى ظُلُمَـٰتِ ٱلْأَرْضِ وَلَا رَطْبٍۢ وَلَا يَابِسٍ إِلَّا فِى كِتَـٰبٍۢ مُّبِينٍۢ
With Him are the keys of the unseen—no one knows them except Him. And He knows what is in the land and sea. Not even a leaf falls without His knowledge, nor a grain in the darkness of the earth or anything—green or dry—but is ˹written˺ in a perfect Record.
3. “JIZYA ATM” (LAMINATED A4 PRINT, NFC TAG, ZIP TIES) — 2026
More about the work pictured above: THE JIZYA ATM is the third station of experience across the journey of interractive installation PURE PROFIT, the work reinterprets the Islamicate concept of Jizya with a council style notice directing participants to the nearby ATM. Centering around a local homeless man whom I call the Saint of Edgware Road — walking past him every week I have seen him consistently in the same position, clutching or reading his Qur’an outside German Doner Kebab. Always with a large Sibha around his neck.
The notice instructs users to give an act of legally obligatory charity towards him.
4. “FLOWER ATM” (SYNTHETIC FLOWERS, ALUMINIUM WIRING) — 2026
More about the work pictured above: THE FLOWER ATM A the fourth station of self-denial across the journey of interractive installation PURE PROFIT, the work is a sculptural offering hung around the neck of Holborn Mosque’s donation machine invoking visitors to give Hadia to the digital, financial mosque realm. The sculpture styles itself based on garlands frequently given in the subcontinent to people of high-status and esteem.
Upon arrival, the map interface instructs users to ask the mosque imam to explain the concept of “Hadia”. And in turn anticipates a donation towards the site’s current expansion project.
5. “PRISM ATM” (GOETHE PRISM, RIDDLE, SUPERGLUE) — 2026
More about the work pictured above: THE PRISM ATM is the fifth station of refraction across the journey of interactive installation PURE PROFIT, the work centre around Goethe’s relationship with light and shape and how this influenced his alleged conversion to Islam. The map prompts guide users through a set of quotes from his writings and directs an act of ritual looking, through the prism and the backlight of the ATM facade.
6. “ALIF POSITION ATM”, INTERACTIVE PERFORMANCE — 2026
More about the work pictured above: THE ALIF POSITION ATM is the sixth station of formation across the journey of interactive installation PURE PROFIT, the work is a square zone which participants step into, instructed by the map prompts, lifting their arms in the air in alignment with the Arabic letter “Alif”. They must hold this position for 30s to proceed to the next station…
7. “WIND CHARM ATM” (ISLAMIC ANTIQUE CUP, ALUMINIUM WIRING, JAPANESE YEN COIN, BINARY CODE TAG, BRAILLE EMBOSSED TAG) — 2026
More about the work pictured above: WIND CHARM is the seventh station of symbol across the journey of interactive installation PURE PROFIT, the work is initially indicated by a braille embossed tag afixed to the ATM reading “THE WIND BLOWS WHERE THE COMPUTER CANNOT GO”, then pointing to an overhead windcharm made from an Islamic Antique cup. The wind charm’s calligraphic tag, is reimagined as a Qur’an verse, rendered in binary code.
THE BINARY CODE AYAH READS: WHATEVER YOU HAVE WILL END BUT WHATEVER ALLAH HAS IS EVERLASTING 16:96
8. “NUMEROLOGY ATM” (CUSTOM ATM KEYPAD, WALL MOUNTED PIR CAGE) — 2026
More about the work pictured above: THE NUMEROLOGY ATM is the eighth station of code across the journey of interactive installation PURE PROFIT, the work takes the form of a secondary ATM Keypad exclusively featuring odd numbers, zero, and the green, yellow and red buttons: “Heaven”, “Here”, and “Hell”. It is enclosed behind a white, wall mounted PIR Cage.
9. “SECRET NAME ATM” (INVISIBLE INK, UV LIGHT, LOCKBOX) — 2026
More about the work pictured above: SECRET NAME ATM is the ninth and penultimate station of unveiling across the journey of interactive installation PURE PROFIT, the work is a full scale invisible ink painting across Whitechapel’s Islamic ATM outside Habib Bank UK. The work renders the ‘secret’ divine name, the Ism al Adham across the face of the ATM in invisible ink.
When lit with a UV Light, accessible in a nearby lockbox, the screen display changes from reading “CASH CASH CASH CASH CASH”, into “الله”
10. “UPLOAD MACHINE” (Al-Ghazali on Poverty and Abstinence: Book XXXIV of the Revival of the Religious Sciences paperback edition, Practi-0.9% Sodium Chloride 3000mL Irrigation I.V. Solution Bag, artist-produced Al-Ghazali on Poverty and Abstinence Text-to-Speech audiobook Edition of 1) — 2026
More about the work pictured above: the UPLOAD MACHINE is the final maqam, the last station, and the beginning of pure gnosis in the journey of PURE PROFIT. The work encloses a copy of Al-Ghazali’s On Poverty and Abstinence within a sealed IV life-support bag. Hanging in the shade above East London Mosque’s exterior ATM, the map prompts users upon arrival to an artist-produced TTS audiobook edition of the book. Upon completion, participants may journey back to arebyte Digital Art Centre to receive a Wazifa, or litany of dhikr from a living Sayyida.