if(vacancy){open;} is a site-responsive neon intervention installed in the window of an artist studio within an academic building at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Borrowing the syntax of computer programming, the neon text reads if(vacancy){open;}, a statement that grants access under the condition of spatial availability.

The intervention emerged in response to the institution’s decision to shut down overnight studio access due to budget constraints, reducing resources once promised to its students. Displayed after the building’s official closing hours and publicly visible to the main street of downtown Chicago, the intervention transformed a studio window into a public screen with message. As immigration enforcement generates widespread uncertainty and fear across the United States, the work reflects broader conditions of restricted mobility, precarity, and exclusion.