White Rabbit 2.0

Author: Naivy Pérez

Title: White Rabbit 2.0

Year: 2009

Genre: Installation / Process Art

Dimensions: Variables

Materials: Computer (No internet access. USB ports and memory card blocked).

Unique Edition  

STATEMENT

In 2010, the piece was adapted to a controlled environment and presented as an installation. White Rabbit 2.0 consists of a fully isolated computer, sealed in a glass display case, with no internet access or user interaction possible. All ports are blocked, and the virus remains active from the moment of installation.

This version transforms the infectious nature of the original virus into a closed, finite event. The work initiates a countdown from the present, gradually retreating to January 1, 1900—the calendar limit of the operating system. This “one-way temporal journey” represents not only a chronological reversal but also the symbolic wear and decay of the piece itself, whose end is literally its end.

Upon completing its temporal course, the device becomes a “dead object”—a relic of its own self-destruction. At that point, the work no longer performs; it is simply contemplated. As if time itself—once reversed—had collapsed the artwork’s existence.

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*Literary work created by the British mathematician, logician, and writer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll.

**Time set that appears integrated to the Windows OS calendar (This data is still under investigation)

ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS

The virus will be executed on a computer (preferably a laptop); this will rest on a pedestal, covered by an anti-reflective glass dome to prevent any possible interaction of the viewer with the work. Internet is not required.

PROGRAMMING INSTRUCTIONS

White Rabbit is a computer virus that affects the clock functions of a computer with a Windows operating system. The virus intervenes in such a way that, progressively, the time, as well as the days, months, and years will reverse, until reaching the last date accepted by the operating system used. At this point, it should stop.

Note: The computer will not be connected to the Internet. USB and memory ports will be blocked. It will have no other use than to be observed; nobody will use it for any other purpose. The viewer will not interact with the work. There will be no mouse, nor keyboard.