It positions architecture, art, and urbanism as relational and epistemic infrastructures rather than autonomous representational objects. The project operates through long-term serial publication on distributed blogs, curatorial platforms such as LAPIEZA, and a structured protocol system known as the Decalogue (entries 501–510), which defines its core conceptual principles. Socioplastics emerged from Lloveras’s shift from conventional architectural practice toward systemic, research-driven production. Initially informed by urban experimentation and relational aesthetics, the framework formalized as a longitudinal structure integrating theoretical writing, curatorial initiatives, and infrastructural publication. From 2009 onward, the project advanced through modular “Century Packs”—thematic blocks of 100 numbered entries each (e.g., 100: Foundational Index; 200: Critical Infrastructure; 300: Metabolic Governance; 400: Sovereign Data; 500: Mesh Persistence; 600: Sovereign Protocols – MUSE; 700+: Territorial Metabolism). These packs consolidate conceptual phases, building internal coherence and expanding vocabulary while treating publication as an active infrastructural practice. Socioplastics employs a vertical architecture summarized as “hard below, supple above.” The fixed core consists of ten invariant protocols (Decalogue, 501–510), each anchored with Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) via Zenodo for archival persistence and ontological stability. These regulate naming jurisdiction, semantic hardening, recursive renewal, citational binding, and autopoietic closure.
Above this bedrock operate the Consoles (511–520), applied interfaces that demonstrate protocol activation in practical contexts (e.g., cities, archives, institutions) without altering the core. A calibration mechanism, PlasticScale, enforces proportionality across nodes, measuring density, gradients, and systemic loads as executable governance rather than descriptive concepts. The overarching structure is formalized as MUSE (Mesh United System Environment), introduced in the 600-series, which clarifies the ordered relationship between sealed core protocols and adaptive operational nodes.
Selected Series and Projects
Key associated initiatives include:
- Blue Bags (2014–ongoing): A durational “Unstable Social Sculpture” series using portable everyday objects (blue plastic bags) as translatorial and situational devices activated across urban and exhibition contexts worldwide.
- LAPIEZA: An independent curatorial and research platform founded in Madrid in 2009 by Anto Lloveras and Esther Lorenzo, serving as a primary operational site. It has produced over 180 numbered series of exhibitions, performances, installations, and hybrid interventions emphasizing relational and processual practices.
- MUSE (Mesh United System Environment): A structural clarification (from the 600-series) defining the vertical order of fixed core and supple nodes, enabling epistemic stability amid volatility.
Territorial Inscription (700 Series)
In February 2026, the 700-series (Urban Territorial Metabolism) marked a pivot from internal epistemic consolidation toward territorial articulation. Urban space is reframed not as illustrative case study but as an operative medium for testing proportional governance. Forces such as extractive rent (pressure gradient), regulatory inertia (structural load), and demographic volatility (entropic turbulence) are metabolized through jurisdictional grammar. Forthcoming nodes (701–710) are configured as exportable analytical modules for peer-reviewed circulation in fields including urban theory, science and technology studies (STS), political ecology, and infrastructure studies. Throughout its trajectory, Socioplastics treats publication—via blogs, DOI archives, and serialized essays—as integral infrastructural practice, forming a unified, self-reinforcing system.
