These are the institutes I’m building.
Six institutes, each devoted to one subject, built to be read in the open.
Essay: One object, four questions →
Interfaces
Where the hand meets the machine
the building as grain-zoom SymbolicHow meaning is compressed into marks
the atlas & its cabinets WrittenThe comparative study of writing systems
the museum floors of type Hanzi DesignChinese symbolic systems — characters as cosmology
the museum of rooms Canto 粵學院Cantonese culture first, language second
the geographic arc CorpusThe scholarly record, read as a library
the reading roomsThe charter
The institutes study their subjects. This page studies their proportions.
- One subject each. Institutes hold one ground and name its borders.
- One logic each. Institutes develop an interior logic, never repeated elsewhere.
- Declared modes. Institutes distinguish observation, interpretation and speculation.
- No verdicts. Institutes publish dimensions; readers decide what matters.
The exhibitions
Every room, floor, register and cabinet across the six institutes.
| Ref | Exhibition | Institute | Kind | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CI·GRE | Greco-Roman WingThe Greco-Roman tradition, read in the original and catalogued by author and era. | Corpus | wing | open |
| CI·SIN | Sinosphere WingThe Sinosphere tradition, read in the original and catalogued by author and era. | Corpus | wing | open |
| CI·IND | Indosphere WingThe Indosphere tradition, read in the original and catalogued by author and era. | Corpus | wing | open |
| CI·ISL | Islamicate WingThe Islamicate tradition, read in the original and catalogued by author and era. | Corpus | wing | open |
| CI·AFR | Afrosphere WingThe Afrosphere tradition, read in the original and catalogued by author and era. | Corpus | wing | open |
| CI·CAT | The CatalogueEvery room, faceted and exportable. | Corpus | room | open |
| CI·WNG | All WingsSeven traditions, one building. | Corpus | room | open |
| CI·TIM | Timeline HallEvery wing on one chronological axis. | Corpus | room | open |
| CI·COR | CorridorsFollow a text to its neighbours in tradition and time. | Corpus | room | open |
| CI·CMP | Compare RoomTexts shoulder to shoulder on shared measures. | Corpus | room | open |
| CI·SHL | ShelvesCollections built from real metadata. | Corpus | room | open |
| CI·SRC | Source ArchiveRepositories, provenance, licensing. | Corpus | room | open |
| CI·CNS | Conservation & ProvenanceHow sources are admitted and graded. | Corpus | room | open |
| CI·API | Data & APIThe same fields, as data. | Corpus | room | open |
| SI·ATL | The AtlasEvery symbol admitted, with its provenance and its confusions. | Symbolic | register | open |
| SI·LEX | The LexiconThe vocabulary of marks, defined. | Symbolic | register | open |
| SI·ARC | ArchetypesThe recurring forms, and where they surface. | Symbolic | register | open |
| SI·SYS | SystemsWhole notational systems, read as designed objects. | Symbolic | register | open |
| SI·GRM | Visual GrammarHow meaning is compressed into marks. | Symbolic | register | open |
| SI·CNF | Confusablescharacters Unicode certifies as indistinguishable | Symbolic | cabinet | open |
| SI·ALC | The Alchemical blocka dead notation that is still growing | Symbolic | cabinet | open |
| SI·INT | The intakeevery symbol, dated by the version that admitted it | Symbolic | cabinet | open |
| SI·FLG | Signal flagstwenty-six flags, each a complete sentence | Symbolic | cabinet | open |
| SI·OSL | One symbol, fifty languageswhat the world actually calls these marks | Symbolic | cabinet | open |
| SI·BLK | The symbol blockssorted by what they are for | Symbolic | cabinet | open |
| HD·COS | CosmologiesThe systems that organise meaning — each character read through one cosmology at a time. | Hanzi | room | open |
| HD·CPT | ConceptsCharacters as design objects: structure, core, and what the shape is arguing. | Hanzi | room | open |
| HD·ESS | EssaysLonger arguments about Chinese symbolic systems. | Hanzi | room | open |
| HD·PUB | PublicationsWhat has been published, and where it went. | Hanzi | room | open |
| WI·ATL | The AtlasReception & registry — every script catalogued, searchable by name, code, typology, and status | Written | floor | open |
| WI·TYP | Hall of TypologiesAlphabet Hall · Abjad Hall · Abugida Hall · Syllabary Hall · Logosyllabic Hall · Featural Annex · Notation Annex | Written | floor | open |
| WI·LIN | Hall of LineagesProto-Sinaitic Wing · Brahmi Wing · Han Wing · Inventors' Room · The Undeciphered Vault | Written | floor | open |
| WI·CNS | Conservation DepartmentLiving Collection · Endangered Ward · Revival Studio · Historical Archive | Written | floor | open |
| WI·LAB | Type LaboratoryDirectionality Studio · The Tofu Room · Specimen Press · Keyboard Room | Written | floor | open |
| WI·TON | Hall of TonguesOne script, many tongues · One tongue, many scripts · Many scripts, one line | Written | floor | open |
| WI·NUM | Hall of NumeralsAdditive Hall · Positional Hall · The Zero Room · Digits in use | Written | floor | open |
| WI·INV | The InventorsThe Brief · The Constraints · The Decisions · The Adoption Curve · The Verdict | Written | series | complete |
| WI·DEC | Decipherment DossiersThe Corpus · The Key · The Method · The Breakthrough · The Aftermath | Written | series | planned |
| WI·BIO | Biographies of LettersThe Picture · The Sound · The Journey · The Forks · The Descendant | Written | series | planned |
| WI·DCR | The DecreeThe Old Script · The Decree · The Rollout · The Resistance · The Outcome | Written | series | planned |
| WI·CON | Conservation FilesThe Loss · The Trigger · The Method · The Community · The Status | Written | series | planned |
| WI·MCH | The Machinery of TextThe Absence · The Innovation · The Spread · The Standard · The Legacy | Written | series | planned |
| WI·ADM | Admission ProceduresThe Proposal · The Committee · The Objections · The Allocation · The Fonts | Written | series | planned |
| WI·ORT | OrthographiesThe Match · The Drift · The Reform · The Depth · The Learner | Written | series | planned |
| CA·WLD | World NamesHow Cantonese named the rest of the world — and what those names literally say. | Canto | room | open |
| CA·HKN | Hong Kong NamesWhat Hong Kong's place names mean, and what they were before. | Canto | room | open |
| CA·LCK | Luck & SignsHomophony as an operating system: numbers, puns, taboos. | Canto | room | open |
| CA·HEA | Heat & CoolingA folk physics of the body, run entirely on food. | Canto | room | open |
| CA·CPT | ConceptsIdeas that don't land in Mandarin — the case for Cantonese as its own mind. | Canto | room | open |
| II·PRN | PrinciplesThe primitives — what is true of an interface before any style is applied. | Interfaces | room | open |
| II·PAT | PatternsInteraction patterns, read as designed objects with a history. | Interfaces | room | open |
| II·BSM | The BasementWhat sits underneath the interface and is never seen. | Interfaces | room | open |
| II·MOT | MotionMovement as a primitive: what it signals and what it costs. | Interfaces | room | open |
| II·WSY | Whole SystemsComplete interface systems examined end to end. | Interfaces | room | open |
| II·LAG | The lagEvery ARIA pattern against the native primitive that would implement it, dated by Baseline. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·PRG | The pattern registerThe thirty patterns of the ARIA Authoring Practices, with their definitions and required roles. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·KBG | The keyboard grammarEvery key the Authoring Practices bind, and every pattern that binds it. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·WCG | WCAG 2.2All eighty-seven success criteria, by principle, guideline and level. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·LAW | What the law requiresEN 301 549 by clause, and which version of WCAG each jurisdiction actually binds. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·ROL | The role taxonomyWAI-ARIA as the typed inheritance hierarchy it actually is. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·CEN | The component censusWho ships what, across eight published design systems. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·CNV | Standardised nowhereThe informal conventions everybody ships, measured against every standard this site holds. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·TST | What a machine can checkEvery WCAG 2.2 success criterion against the W3C ACT rules that can test it. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·ACM | What the platform learned to askEvery media feature by which a page can ask what a person needs, dated by Baseline. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·INP | What a form field may be aboutEvery autofill token HTML defines, against the input purposes WCAG requires. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·KBD | The keyboard nobody bindsEvery key value the platform defines, against the keys the Authoring Practices actually bind. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·ARI | A contract with optional termsEvery ARIA state and property, and what any role actually requires of it. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·FRM | The form that assumes your nameWhat a name is made of in 766 locales, and what an address is made of in 252 territories. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·LBR | Where text breaksThe Unicode line-breaking classes, counted by character. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·STA | The error vocabularyEvery assigned HTTP status code, with the specification that defines it. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·GRD | Published layout gridsEvery layout grid a publisher wrote down, and the ones that only look like they have one. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·DTL | What each tool computesA hundred and twenty tools, and the specification each one actually implements. | Interfaces | collection | open |
| II·REF | Where the screenshots areThe libraries the profession learns from, and what they will tell you about their own material. | Interfaces | collection | open |
The treaty office
Where two institutes could claim the same ground, there are some boundaries.
| Symbolic ↔ Written Symbolic studies the encoding; Written studies the artefact. | Adopted |
| Symbolic ↔ Hanzi A wing, not a peer. Han semantics at Hanzi Design; Han typography at Written. | Standing |
| The specimen rule An object may be examined by several institutes, but only one may take it as its subject. The others name their own question and use the object as a specimen. | Standing |
Generated 2026-08-26 from 6 institute manifests.
Each institute publishes its own at /exhibitions.json.