Semantics

Semantics

My work in semantics brings together two seemingly opposed fronts: critical epistemologies and technical infrastructures. I operate both as a consultant and as a rebel.

On one side, I work with institutions —libraries, archives, museums, NGOs, and research centers— that need robust, ethical, and context-sensitive metadata. I design ontologies, repair broken inheritance chains, map vocabularies, and build semantic pipelines grounded in RDF, SKOS, OWL, SHACL, and linked data. My goal is not just interoperability, but meaning that survives translation across systems and languages.

On the other side, I intervene in places where metadata fails — where taxonomies are colonial, schemas are blind, and knowledge is denied. I create counter-classifications, subversive crosswalks, and epistemic prosthetics for those left outside dominant systems. I work with oral memory, multilingual archives, informal taxonomies, Indigenous knowledge, and endangered soundscapes — always in tension with what "counts" as data.

I believe semantics is political. Every field mapped, every term assigned, every relationship named is a worldview made solid. I help clients —and communities— recognize that power, and use it wisely.

This space hosts:

• Case studies from consulting work: real-world transformations (e.g., Dublin Core → MODS) using open standards and transparent code.
• Open resources: XSLT scripts, SHACL shapes, mapping matrices, RDF vocabularies.
• Essays and provocations: reflections on broken metadata, archival failure, semantic insurgency.
• Projects and pipelines: from biodiversity crosswalks to decolonial vocabularies.

Everything here is part of the same commitment: to make meaning legible, legibly — without betraying its roots.

For a deeper dive into my critical and decolonial approach to semantics, see my research topics on semantic insurgency and archival composting.

This space is under construction. New content coming soon.