Atlas
An open system for building, connecting and understanding knowledge through simple relationships rather than predefined hierarchies.
Creator • In Development • 2026 – Present
View the Atlas project →Atlas is an open project exploring how people organise complex ideas. Rather than treating knowledge as a collection of isolated documents or folders, Atlas begins with a simple premise: understanding emerges through relationships.
Every piece of knowledge begins as a Thing. Things become meaningful by connecting to other Things. As those connections accumulate, larger structures emerge naturally without requiring predefined categories, taxonomies or database design.
Atlas is intended to support the way people think rather than asking them to adapt to software.
The project began as a response to the challenges of managing an increasingly interdisciplinary artistic practice, where works, exhibitions, research, writing, collaborators and ideas all influence one another but resist conventional organisation.
Rather than encouraging users to plan a structure before they begin, Atlas encourages them to start with something they already have. A note. A photograph. A person. A place. A work. An idea. Connections are created through direct interaction, allowing organisation to emerge gradually through use.
This philosophy extends throughout the project. The interface is intentionally restrained, reducing visual noise in favour of clarity. Builders spend their time making connections rather than configuring systems.
Atlas aims to disappear behind the work it supports.
Current areas of development include:
Atlas Core Model
Interaction Design
Visual Language
Publishing System
Discovery Engine
WordPress Reference Implementation
Atlas is being developed as an open project, with documentation, design decisions and prototypes published throughout its development. Although inspired by the needs of an artistic practice, the underlying model is intended to support anyone working with complex, connected knowledge, including researchers, museums, writers, designers, architects and cultural organisations.
Rather than replacing human thinking with automation, Atlas seeks to extend it by making relationships visible.
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