Ontology

This ontology constitutes a formal semantic framework for the WE DON'T DESIGN practice, developed as a computational instantiation of an anti-functionalist design philosophy. Encoded in OWL 2 DL (Description Logic) and serialised in RDF/Turtle syntax, the knowledge graph comprises 155 named classes, 82 object properties, and 3,721 triples that systematically axiomatise the relationships between conceptual abstractions, material instantiations, and phenomenological outcomes. The model employs class restrictions, symmetric and selected transitive properties, and controlled property chain axioms to support automated reasoning. A work embodying a given tension, for example, can inherit the cognitive effect formally associated with that tension. Unlike design ontologies organised primarily around form or function, this structure gives formal expression to a system based on subtraction, absence, semantic tension, material conditions, fruition, and cultural relation. Its scope therefore extends beyond classification to the logical representation of works, materials, creative processes, audience relations, and cultural genealogies.

The ontology also establishes a dated and citable record of the conceptual apparatus developed by WE DON'T DESIGN. Concepts that would otherwise remain distributed across works, texts, and editorial material are assigned stable identifiers and explicit relations. This contributes to intellectual-property documentation and makes the system addressable by semantic search, linked-data tools, and machine agents. External authority is used selectively: 66 Wikidata Q-items identify cultural figures, movements, works, places, and materials where an adequate correspondence exists, while the internal definitions and relations remain governed by the WDD ontology. The resulting graph can also be examined independently as a formal model within design-theory research.

The ontology is organised into four interconnected domains. ESSENCE contains meta-axioms, the foundational axiom, operational axioms and principles, tensions, and exploration themes. PHENOMENOLOGY contains works, physical and conceptual materials, paradoxes, and the creative process. ECOSYSTEM models authors, audience categories, anti-audience positions, and the relational structure surrounding the works. RESONANCE contains cognitive effects, cultural lineage, historical movements, curatorial clusters, and qualified cultural-reference assertions. The current graph contains 39 reference persons and 51 movement principles. Provenance and governance operate across these domains through ReferenceAssertion, PROV-O relations, evidence and editorial states, SHACL constraints, and approved-public export rules. Cultural influence is not treated as generically transitive: movement-level influence is derived only through the controlled chain influencedByAgent / belongsToMovement → influencedByMovement.