Exhibit A (2025)

In its dormant state, the work is a sculpture of exposed computer hardware, meticulously arranged on a transparent sheet of plexiglass. The piece is inert until a viewer chooses to interact with the engraved aluminum panel, which contains a single button and a text outlining the severe legal ramifications of its use:

By activating this device, you are knowingly and willfully committing an act of transnational cybercrime. Your action will deploy a purpose-built criminal instrument onto a global network and initiate the trafficking of illicit data, thereby implicating you as a principal actor in a transnational criminal scheme. You will be held solely and directly responsible for the legal consequences of this act. Pursuant to mutual legal assistance treaties and extradition agreements, you may be subject to investigation, arrest, and prosecution by authorities in the jurisdiction where this act is committed, your country of citizenship, or any nation where this activity causes harm.

Upon pressing the button, the viewer knowingly commits a real act of cybercrime. The hardware awakens, launching a fully functional darknet marketplace (http://spectretjag3wni6fzt445qwgokqlxnfz7fxkicj5efxjywlinibmkid.onion) that offers a trove of illegal data for sale across borders. For the duration the button is held, the participant becomes the operator of this criminal enterprise. When released, the marketplace vanishes and the machine returns to its silent, static form. Exhibit-A questions the boundaries of art by using a criminal act as its medium, positing that the resulting emotions, be it curiosity, fear, or shame, are the true substance of the piece.