Library of Babel

Client: Indebt Art Gallery, Amsterdam
Year: 2024
Duration: 3 months
Type: Personal Projects

Inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ short story, I built an interactive installation and organised a group show, inviting 34 artists, musicians and lecturers to interpret the theme. Borges imagines the universe as infinite, connecting hexagonal libraries filled with books of random characters; driven to madness, librarians search for a mythical “Crimson Hexagon” holding a codex to interpret the randomness. My installation built one of the hexagons, filled with 16 books of randomly generated lines (to Borges’ specifications). Visitors typed a line from a book into an iPad on the wall, and the code returned a randomly generated yet syntactically cohesive sentence — a prompt to question archival practices in an age of seemingly infinite knowledge.

01Concept and ideation

Notes and sketches from reading Borges, the 1:1 hexagon plans, and a reading group on the story. The themes that ran through them shaped the show.

Move over the pages to look closer

Themes from the notes

Hover any point to trace its links

Theme
Source
Installation

02The hexagon

One room of Borges' library built at full scale: a pine frame 3 m across and 2 m high, shelves on four walls holding the 16 books, and an iPad on the back wall where visitors typed a line to get a sentence back.

Drag to spin · click the glowing screen3 m across · 1.5 m sides · 2 m high

03The installation

The finished hexagon in the gallery: visitors browsing the shelves, reading the books and typing lines into the iPad.

04Build

Cutting and joining the pine frame by hand, then raising the hexagon in the gallery and fitting the shelves.

05Posters

Designed for print, web and social.

06The show

With over 150 attendees, the show materialised a surreal short story through collaborative, immersive audience participation. I also designed the posters for print, web and social.

All lectures and sets ↗

15:00: Pala. G (DJ + music solo)
15:40: András Kiss (lecture)
16:05: Ton Felices (music solo)
16:25: Ayoub Samadi (lecture)
16:50: Micheal Murray (music solo)
17:10: Abhiraj Goswami (lecture)
17:30: Tzara the Machine (music solo)
17:50: Raiyu Hirayama (lecture)
18:10: Franek Dziduch (reading)
18:25: Cherie Kekko (DJ)
18:35: Ren Babac (performance)
19:05: Edo Taddia (reading)
19:15: Human Observer (music solo)
19:30: Anthony Girgis (music solo)
19:45: Theodorus (music duo)
20:00: Sola Lutringer (music solo)
20:15: Music installation (group)
22:00: Neska (DJ)

Credits

Installation and curation

Group show co-curated with Bea Secchia