Socioplastics 11882 The Same Data, Three Publics
A municipality releases one dataset as a coloured map, a ranking of streets and a searchable table. Each display can contain the same numbers while distributing visibility and authority differently. ScreenEthics examines the editorial choices through which an interface makes evidence public: order, scale, contrast, default settings, accessibility and opportunities to question what appears. A heat map may direct attention toward neighbourhoods with the highest recorded temperatures. A ranking may make a single street seem like the decisive case. A table may allow residents to inspect individual measurements and their sources. These views affect what people notice, how they compare places and which questions they can bring to public discussion. Interface design therefore participates in the circulation of evidence. Paul Virilio’s critique of accelerated vision foregrounds speed, perception and technical power. Jonathan Sterne’s history of sound reproduction shows how formats acquire significance through social convention. Lisa Parks studies broadcast and satellite infrastructures, linking representation to the systems that transmit it. Their different perspectives help explain why a screen is an active arrangement of information rather than a neutral window. A public interface could be evaluated through several user journeys, including keyboard access, screen readers and different levels of familiarity with the subject. Researchers would document default views, missing context, accessible alternatives and the route from a display back to its source data. ScreenEthics makes these choices available for public review. The ethical quality of an interface depends on how it structures attention and supports people in interpreting and challenging evidence. A clear path from display to source helps sustain that public scrutiny.
REFERENCES
Parks, L. (2005) Cultures in Orbit: Satellites and the Televisual. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Sterne, J. (2003) The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Virilio, P. (1994) The Vision Machine. Translated by J. Rose. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
CITE AS
Lloveras, A. (2026) Socioplastics, LAPIEZA-LAB, Madrid.
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