Jingqi Kay Liu

The Library of Babel serves as an allegory for the challenges of information archive in an era of vast data accumulation. By conceptualizing an infinite library containing every possible combination of characters, it highlights both the overwhelming potential of data storage and the paradox of meaningful discovery within an ocean of random information. The concept originated from Jorge Luis Borges’ short story The Library of Babel (1941), in which he imagines a vast, seemingly infinite library containing every possible combination of letters and words. Within this library, meaningful texts exist, but they are buried within an overwhelming mass of nonsensical arrangements. In his other work Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius (1940), Borges also introduced a fictional encyclopedia, detailing an entirely imaginary world—Tlön—whose existence begins to encroach upon reality itself. Together, these two constructs challenge the boundary of textual knowledge, emphasizing the paradox of accessibility and authenticity within information organization and retrieval. They illustrate how the vastness of possible information can either facilitate discovery or obscure meaning, raising questions about authorship, authority, and the blurring line between fiction and reality.

In 2015, an online project, Library of Babel (https://libraryofbabel.info), was launched by Jonathan Basile as a digital rendition of Borges’ vision. This digital adaptation allows users to input any combination of words and letters, and the website will “retrieve” an identical match from its “archive,” and output the location information. It operates under the principle that all possible text arrangements already exist within its database, echoing Borges’ philosophical exploration of infinity, randomness, and the search for meaning.

In the creator’s publication, Tar For Mortar: “the Library of Babel” and the Dream of Totality, he acknowledges the impossibility of constructing a literal database containing all possible text combinations due to the sheer computational and storage limitations. Instead, he devised an algorithm that generates the index location of a given input dynamically upon searching using a pseudo-random number generator. This method creates the illusion that the text already existed within the library while circumventing the need for actual storage. At the intersection between generative algorithm and philosophical allegory, the project evokes Borges’ inquiry into the nature of knowledge. By simulating an all-encompassing archive through computational means, it mirrors the paradox of informational infinity—a framework that both contains everything and renders individual meaning elusive.

Concealed behind layers of code, this approach raises questions about the nature of information retrieval and the perception of pre-existing knowledge. Rather than a true archival system, the project functions as an interactive exploration of determinism and randomness—where every possible text can be “found,” but only because it is systematically placed at the moment of search. This highlights the tension between the boundless nature of knowledge and the algorithmic structures that shape access to information. Within this infinite repository, anything can be referenced, but only when it is deliberately sought out. This notion reflects the self-referential nature of human knowledge—where ideas constantly build upon, reinterpret, and redefine one another with inherent interest—while also emphasizing the challenge of discerning meaningful insights amidst an ever-expanding, often chaotic, information landscape.

The Library of Babel, 2023

Serigraph on paper
22″ x 22″

Exhibited at a83, New York NY as a part of the group exhibition First Edition, 2023.

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References

Literature

Basile, Jonathan Edward. Tar For Mortar: “the Library of Babel” and the Dream of Totality, 2018.

Borges, Jorge Luis. The Library of Babel, 1941.

Borges, Jorge Luis. Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, 1940.

Online Resources

“Library of Babel,” n.d. https://libraryofbabel.info/.

librarianofbabel. “Invertible Multi-precision Pseudo Random Number Generator Example.” GitHub, n.d. https://github.com/librarianofbabel/libraryofbabel.info-algo.