ROBERT ALICE: BABEL #33/100 by Robert Alice

ARTWORK SITE
https://pfjk6ynci3olsmxnlt2wwu3uhoi4nhxicpy4hivzjudga5kr25da.arweave.net/eVKvYaJG3Lky7Vz1a1N0O5HGnugT8cOiuU0GYHVR10Y/

ABOUT THIS WORK
Inspired by the concept of the blockchain as an infinite library, Alice has created an algorithm that animates and collides phrases and words into infinite configurations of concrete verbal poetry. Drawing from important texts that have foreshadowed the blockchain, from Timothy C. May’s Crypto Anarchist Manifesto (1988) to the writings of the Chinese philosopher Laozi from the 6th century, the work plays with the concept of an infinite corpus of knowledge that sits at the heart of Borges’ Library of Babel (1941). Using the Ethereum block height as the trigger for new compositions of text, the work is fundamentally tied to the architecture of the blockchain as the world's first truly decentralised public library. Juxtaposed freely with total randomness, history is collapsed and recomposed, veering from order to chaos and back again.

This work was first exhibited at the French national museum, the Monnaie de Paris, 29 June to 22 October 2023.

ABOUT BABEL
Taking its title from Jorge Luis Borges’ 1941 short story ‘Library of Babel’ (1941), this new exhibition by Robert Alice investigates blockchains through the lens of Borges’ infinite library. Centred around an infinite library made of discrete rooms filled with every possible text - meaningful and nonsense combined, Borges’ Library of Babel is both a premonition of blockchain structures and post-truth landscapes in the age of AI. The project is a collaboration with LaCollection and marks the first time NFTs were exhibited France's oldest institution (f.864AD).