Status: Published – Oct 6th, 2026

Author: Piotr Budzisz

Abstract

This entry defines the author’s concept of Spatial Grammar as an operational system of narrative metadata used to overlay the raw geometry of 3D models, produced through the digitisation of historical objects, with cultural and affective meaning. The tool is designed to prevent the phenomenon of “digital recycling” and to serve as a competence bridge between heritage institutions and the game development industry. It enables the systematic design of spatial narrative, or environmental storytelling, in interactive environments.

Keywords: spatial grammar, intersemiotic translation, digital humanities, spatial narrative, environmental storytelling, game studies, heritage digitisation

Piotr Budzisz

is a researcher working at the intersection of digital humanities, game studies and literary studies, and a doctoral student at the Doctoral School of the University of Silesia. Professionally, he is affiliated with Shaft K — Silesian Hub for Advanced Future Technologies, an innovative technology hub in Katowice.

In his research-and-implementation project “Coal in Pixels”, he analyses the digitisation of post-industrial heritage, using the Wieczorek Coal Mine as a case study, and approaches this process as an act of intersemiotic translation. He has previously been involved, among other projects, in transmedia narrative processes for Chernobyl VR. His work combines hard data from scanning systems, including LiDAR and photogrammetry, with the design of immersive experiences in game engines.

Spatial Grammar

Spatial Grammar is an original, multi-layered system of narrative metadata assigned to digital 3D models, functioning as an operational worldbuilding instruction for creators of interactive environments, such as video game developers and VR creators. The concept moves away from treating digitised heritage objects merely as geometric, raw solids. Instead, it proposes a process of deep intersemiotic translation. The tool makes it possible to protect the so-called “poetics of destruction” from the sterility of digital recording.

Structurally, Spatial Grammar consists of three interconnected components:

Lexicon / Morphology: A catalogue of digital traces of wear visible on the model, such as rust or material loss, in which the physical degradation of an object is translated into carriers of specific affective states and indicators of the passage of time.

Syntax / Syntactics: A set of rules defining the relationships and positioning of historical objects within a virtual ludotope, used to build appropriate dramaturgical tension and atmosphere, for example by recommending the placement of a winding engine at the centre of a location.

Code / Semantics: A critical-historical layer overlaid onto raw geometry, redefining a technical resource, or asset, as a fully fledged interactive sign of culture, for example by defining an object as a “monument of exploitation.”

In pragmatic terms, Spatial Grammar functions as a framework for counteracting the erasure of the historical identity of places in processes of remediation. It builds a bridge between heritage studies and level design in the creative industries.