No need to speculate: we’re already living in a mixed reality. Not only are digital means required to understand and contextualize physical phenomena, but the digital is increasingly implied in the physical. Is digital space still the domain of the immaterial and the abstract? Is physical space still the domain of the literal and the concrete? <span> narrows the gulf between tangible and intangible through the phenomenon of versioning. Physical artifacts act as passkeys to digital experience: only by engaging with the artifacts of our process as designers—raw material, cast-offs, prototypes, buggy code—can viewers access the gestalt.

What happens when digital syntax becomes the organizing principle of physical space? <span> applies the code-logic of online space to physical space: Projects are grouped thematically into “subdomains”, and linked via discrete information architecture. Physical space becomes a formula for understanding the connections between works, and the underlying logic of the exhibition itself (like inspecting the code).

<span> is an exercise in applying the code-logic of digital syntax to physical space, and vice versa. Digital artifacts will reveal themselves only to those who dare to interact with their referents: physical process objects, castoffs, prototypes. <span> is architected into three subdomains: Surveillance, Identity, and Territory. Like the <span> tag in html code, each project within a subdomain adds situated meaning and specificity to its parent.