Visualizing Urban Data: Maps, Charts, Digital Twins

<jats:p>The article examines the influence of material practices of producing, transmitting, and combining visual forms (from classical maps and diagrams to digital twins) on the production and circulation of knowledge about the city. The authors proceed from the assumption that visualization techniques are not neutral intermediaries but actively shape urban reality, acting as instruments for managing space and the actions of citizens, managers, and politicians. The work aims to explain how the representation of urban data is constrained by the materiality of media and how the evolution of visual means transforms the ways of constructing the urban imaginary. The central result is a historical perspective that reveals interactions with the city in connection with representations mediated by geographical data. It is shown that maps, diagrams, and digital twins acquire autonomy from their creators, legitimizing themselves through graphic scales, data compression, and the totality of the gaze, which compels social actors to materialize the world encoded within them. Unlike classical maps, the digital twin radicalizes this optic, configuring the user as a “virtual camera” capable of penetrating surfaces and eliminating horizons. Rethinking geographical information in terms of relationality and situatedness opens up prospects for expanding interpretive empirical practice. The article is intended for sociologists, urbanists, visual culture researchers, as well as practitioners in the fields of urban planning and urban development management.</jats:p>